Masks
by ScentofaSnake
Summary: This is the story of five friends, a vengeful marionette and an enigmatic killer. A seemingly random random set of characters, but there's one thing that ties them all together: the masks they wear.
1. Prologue

"Who wants some birthday cake?" The brown bear animatronic chuckled. He walked around the building, carrying in his hand an enticing plate of chocolate cake.

"Fredbear! I want some cake, over here!" A child yelled from across the room, but the bear was already serving a child cake.

Fredbear began walking clunkily away from the child, who was already wolfing down his slice of cake. The animatronic was large, about 6'5 feet tall, and sported a black top hat and bowtie. His features were blocky, but he was advanced for his time. He could sing, he could talk, and he served cake. He was the star of the show.

He heard a child's voice, which his programming told him to follow. He was attracted to sound, so that he could locate the children and entertain them in the easiest and most efficient way possible.

"I hope you have a great day at Fredbear's Family Diner!" Fredbear said as the child grabbed a slice of cake.

As he began walking away from the young boy, he heard the sound of another child. It was distant, but he could hear it. It was coming from outside the diner. He began walking towards it, but his objective was overwritten by a much louder voice shouting "Fredbear!"

The robot turned, disregarding the boy crying outside of the diner.

The boy watched through the window as the bear began serving another child. Tears blurred his vision as he turned away and continued to cry, slumping against the wall of the building. He hid his head in his hands and tried to stop himself. He should be a big boy. Big boys don't cry.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a loud motor, followed by the screeching of tires and the click of a door handle. The boy looked up and brought his hands up to his eyes, wiping away the tears. In front of him was a man, exiting the violet car that had come to a stop in front of him.

"Hey there, pal, what's wrong?" The man asked in a comforting voice as he approached the child. He was lanky, almost a giant, the boy thought, and looked to be in his mid-to-late 20's. He had a narrow face and tidy, combed black hair. His eyes were a greenish-grey colour and piercing, but the most striking detail about him was his vibrant purple shirt, buttoned to the top.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?" He asked as he came closer, he had a look of curiosity on his face but there was...something else. An emotion the young boy didn't recognise.

He backed away from the tall man a bit. His mother had always warned him not to talk to strangers, and he'd always listened.

"What's your name, kid? Where are your parents?" The man continued to question him.

"I'm...Sammy," Sammy replied eventually. The man seemed nice enough. He just wanted to help him.

"Hi, Sammy. I'm William, or Bill, for short," William greeted. "So why are you out here all on your own? Where are your parents? Are they in there?" William gestured to Fredbear's, where the star of the show was still serving cake.

"No...it's my friend Scott's birthday, but…" Sammy wiped his eyes, "He didn't invite me. I think he's mad at me for something, but I don't know why!"

"Oh, well that's no good," William tutted. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then his face lit up again. "I know what would make you feel better. How about a hug?" The man offered, spreading his arms wide, with a gleeful smile on his face.

"No...no thank you. I'm okay now," Sammy said, quickly standing up. The man's overly friendly behaviour was setting off alarms for him. His parents had told him all about strangers offering him hugs and candy and other nice things. They told him they weren't nice people. They wanted to hurt him. He began to walk swiftly down the empty street, when the man stood in front of him again.

"Are you sure? Hugs always make people feel better, you know!" He insisted, inching closer to Sammy.

"N-no! I'm alright, really. I-I'm just going to go home now. Thank you," Sammy refused in a trembling voice. His walk quickened as he sped around William's lanky form and continued to make his way back home at a quick pace.

Suddenly, he felt a pair of hands wrap around his torso, and roughly pull him backwards, causing him to cry out in surprise. He thrashed about, trying to squirm free of the hands that wrapped around him like a giant squid, ensnaring its prey, and dragging it down into the depths of the sea.

"You little brat…" William growled as his hand covered Sammy's mouth to quieten him and his free hand forced him down onto the cold, hard ground. "You had to make this hard, didn't you?" His hands wrapped around Sammy's frail throat and began to squeeze hard. Sammy gasped for air and wildly swung his limbs at William.

"I didn't want to do this Sammy, I didn't. I wanted this to be over quickly as well. But you had to make it hard for me," William snarled through clenched teeth, his eyes wide with a wild rage.

"I'll at least make it quick for you. I think you've already suffered enough." William pulled a pocket knife from his back pocket, holding Sammy down with his other arm. Sammy's eyes widened at the sight of the weapon, and then William brought it down, into his chest, and in one quick motion, brought it out again and released Sammy from his grasp.

Sammy sputtered as he felt himself grow weak and the blood pour out of the wound in his chest.

William stood up straight and stared silently at Sammy for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then he turned his back and returned to his violet coloured car, started it up and drove off, leaving Sammy to die.

"Help…" Sammy called weakly. His vision darkened, and he could feel his body turning numb. Tears ran down his face. "Help...please..." he repeated, in the hope that a grown-up, or one of his friends, or anyone would find him on the ground, dying, and save him.

But he died alone.


	2. Chapter 1: Five Friends

It was a warm Summer's day, at around 4 o'clock in the day. There was a cool, refreshing breeze blowing through the area, keeping the children from getting too hot. All around, It was a perfect day to be outside, having fun.

"Give them back, Sam!" A young blonde boy cried in a whining voice. He had a round face, which now wore a frown of frustration, and, oddly, wore a brown parka despite the warmth of the day. He stood at the bottom of a large climbing frame, squinting up to the top.

At the top of the climbing frame sat a girl, wearing brown shorts and a navy shirt, cheerily kicking her feet over the edge, and dangling a pair of round glasses in front of her precariously. "If you want them you're gonna have to come up and get them!" She sang in a teasing voice.

"You know I'm afraid of heights, Sam! Come on, I can't see anything without them!" The boy replied, balling his fists. He was not adamant that his refusal would result in the girl forfeiting his glasses to him, in fact he knew it wouldn't, but to climb to the top of the frame would be asking too much of him.

Another girl, standing a few feet away from the boy held her hands together in a worried manner and called up to the impish sitting atop the climbing frame. "Sam, please just give Chris back his glasses. I want to go play on the swings."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Fine..." she sighed. She climbed down the climbing frame a few feet before jumping straight to the ground, landing on her feet. "Here you go, scaredy cat," she held out the pair of glasses in front of the blonde boy.

"Thanks..." Chris muttered in appreciation.

Sam then turned to the other girl. "You're such a party pooper, Lilly. I was just having some fun!"

"Well it's not fun for us when you torment Chris like that..." She said apologetically.

Sam rolled her eyes, and felt the slightest twinge of guilt. Facing Chris, she uttered an apology, "Sorry for taking your glasses." She said quickly, then turned to face Lilly before he could respond. "There. Happy?"

"Are you done?" a voice called boredly from a bench beside the playground. It belong to Jack, a dark haired boy who had been spectating the whole event from his seat, deeming the conflict too trivial to earn his involvement. He was scratching at his red shirt, trying to get rid of an annoying itch. Beside him sat Michael, Lilly's seven year old brother. He was about half a year younger than the other children, and stayed close to his sister most of the time. He hadn't wanted to be involved with the conflict, as usual, so he'd taken a seat beside Jack and stayed quiet throughout, mostly uninterested by it.

"Yeah, we are. What should we do now?" Chris said, adjusting his glasses before shooting a glare at Sam, who failed to notice in light of the new topic.

"Well, I've been waiting for you guys to finish up so I could go on the seesaw. Anyone want to come?" Jack offered.

"Yeah, let's go!" Sam, ever vigorous, agreed, dashing towards the seesaw with Jack in her stride.

"You shouldn't let Sam mess with you like that, Chris," Lilly said as the other two children headed for the seesaw. Michael hopped up from the bench and walked over the Lille, standing close behind her. "She's only having some fun, but if it annoys you you should say it."

"Yeah, I know." Chris mumbled, looking slightly away from Lilly. "But you know...she might not listen, and she always teases me."

Lilly frowned slightly and twisted her long blonde hair around her finger mindlessly. "If she know it annoys you, she won't do it anymore. She doesn't do it in a mean way."

"I know..." Chris repeated.

"Oh, and uh, are you coming to the party tomorrow?" Lilly said, changing the subject to something lighter.

"Oh, right, Michael's birthday." Chris looked at the boy hidden behind Lilly. "You're turning 8, right?"

"Yeah," Michael replied quietly, but proudly. The other children were already slightly older than 8 and turning the same age gave him some confidence. He emerged from behind Lilly to speak to Chris. "I'm going to get new action figures!" He continued excitedly.

"Great! It's at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, isn't it?" Chris asked. Freddy's was a pizza place with an animatronic band. It was magical for the children to see the bear singing birthday songs, talking and playing with them.

"Yeah!" Michael's smile grew bigger.

"It's going to be great, Michael." Lilly looked towards the playground, where Jack and Sam were busy on the seesaw, laughing and shouting joyfully. "Hey, the swings are empty, come on!"

The trio ran to the set of swings, with Michael tagging along behind Lilly, and there they played until late into the day.


	3. Chapter 2: The New Recruit

William pulled into the vacant parking parking spot, and stopped his violet vehicle. He unlocked the door and stepped out into the night, greeted by the cold wind blowing against his face. William didn't mind it; he preferred the cold over the heat.

He gazed up at the building he'd arrived at. It was mostly an unordinary, large building, with pale blue and yellow walls, bar the large sign that was stuck on the top of the front of the structure, depicting a cartoony brown bear waving with one hand and holding a microphone up to his mouth with the other. Below him were the words "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza" in a large, red and yellow font, catching the eye of people passing by on the street.

Standing at the double doors leading inside the restaurant was the figure of a man. As William began walking towards the man, his details became more apparent. He wore a pair of rectangular spectacles over his blue eyes. He had noticeably large bags under his eyes, though he looked alert, and his dirty blonde hair fell messily over his forehead. He looked like he hadn't had a good night's sleep in a long time, yet he seemed alert and fidgety. His attire was very formal, consisting of a plain white shirt and a dark tie, trousers and shoes. He held a small notebook in his right hand. He smiled at William as he approached him, though it didn't seem completely genuine.

"You must be William, right? William Afton?" he glanced down at a small notepad he held in his hand.

"Yeah, that's me." William confirmed. "I signed up for the technician job-but you probably already knew that." William smiled at the man in return, but it looked more like a smirk.

"Oh, yeah, right. I'm Henry. Henry Cawthon." Henry offered his hand, and William shook it firmly. "I'll be, uh, introducing the pizzeria to you. You know, showing you the animatronics, how they work, what you'll be doing, all that..." Henry began tapping his fingers against the notepad he held. "So, uh, let's go inside and get started."

"Sounds good," William said. The two men stepped inside the pizzeria, out of the cold night's wind and into the warmth of the building. The inside of the building contrasted greatly with the calm blue and yellow paint on the outside.. The floor was checkered black and white, like a giant chessboard. The walls were painted blue and white, and red. Colourful stars hung from the ceiling, party hats were strewn about on the dining tables, and posters of the animatronic characters lined the walls. In one corner of the room was a carousel featuring four coloured figures. There were two long hallways on either end of the back wall, one on the far left of the restaurant, and the other on the right.

Henry glanced down at the writing he had on his notebook again. "Okay, so, uh, first thing, I'll show you the animatronics. They're the most important part of your job, after all. They're just over this way," he said, as he began guiding William over to a large, purple curtain, ordained with silver star shapes. Henry pulled back the curtain, revealing the animatronic band to William. "So, here's the band!" Henry said, admiring the trio of robots. "There's Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny and Chica the Chicken." William took a moment to inspect their designs.

The animatronic in the center of the stage was instantly recognizable as Freddy Fazbear; his face was on the sign outside, after all. Although in reality, he looked very different than the cheery and cartoony bear that greeted passerbys outside. His head was chunky and bumpy. His features were undefined and rough. The top portion of his head was rectangular, with his cheeks curving outwards a bit. His blue eyes stared straight ahead, and his eyelids hung down lazily. His mouth hung open slightly, revealing both the white, square plastic teeth on his costume, and the silver, metallic teeth of his inner endoskeleton. His angular lower jaw was mostly split from the top jaw, giving him a faux grin. He wore the same black tophat and bowtie that the image outside did, giving him at least some sense of approachableness, and carried a microphone, to give the illusion that his singing was being projected all around the pizzeria.

On his left stood a large blue rabbit; Bonnie the Bunny. William noticed that Bonnie was almost identical to Freddy, the only differences being Bonnie's red bowtie and eyes, his long ears, his two buck teeth and the red electric guitar he clutched. While Freddy sang songs, Bonnie played guitar and cracked jokes.

On Freddy's right was Chica the Chicken, a large yellow bird that encouraged the children to eat lots of pizza while in the pizzeria, and was the only female member in the band. She had a large orange beak, and her head was split into two halves, presumably to allow the lower portion of the beak to move up and down while she talked. She wore a white bib sporting the words "Let's Eat!" in yellow, and in her left hand she held a plate with a pink cupcake with two eyes on it. The cupcake itself was also an animatronic, and sometimes discussed with Chica about what the best foods to eat were.

"Uh, these guys are the main stars of the show. They sing, they play music, they talk to the kids, put on funny acts...and they're allowed to, uh, walk around the Dining Area, to interact with kids. That's something those other pizzerias' animatronics don't do." Henry smiled smugly. "Uh, they need to be in perfect condition for their performances. The kids don't want to see their favorite characters not working or looking dirty, you know? And uh, make sure their servos don't lock up or whatever so they can move freely." Henry informed William.

William was sceptical that anyone, especially children, would not be terrified of those hideous bulky robots, but he played along to appease the other man.

"No need to worry. I've had experience with these kinds of robots before, they're fairly easy to repair when they do happen to break down," William assured Henry.

"Oh, well that's great. There'll be time to check up on them later, we haven't even gotten to the most important part yet," Henry insisted, tapping his fingers against the notebook again.

Henry walked across the room, past the dining tables to another pair of purple curtains, these ones much smaller than the previous ones. "This is the Pirate Cove, uh, where Foxy stays." Henry said, pulling back the curtains. It was small room with paintings of pirate boats, parrots, treasure chests and eyepatches on the blue walls. Near the far corner of the room was a circular stage, where Foxy the Pirate Fox, a fox with bright red fur, a long snout, a hook an eye patch and torn brown shorts stood, his head slightly drooping to the right. William inspected the sailor some more, and spotted a few holes and tears in his suit, revealing his endoskeleton. His legs suffered the most, and the majority of his right foot's endoskeleton was revealed.

"This is, uh, Foxy." Henry gestured to the red fox with his hand. "He entertains some of the older kids, who might get bored by the band's songs, you know. He's got a hook, an eyepatch, and some gold teeth...pretty cool, huh?" Henry smiled fondly at the pirate for a moment. William raised an eyebrow but said nothing. "Anyway, he's kind of um...twitchy. H-he breaks down quite a lot, actually, so uh, that could get a little annoying...for you..." Henry trailed off.

William caught on to Henry's appreciation for this character in particular. It wouldn't hurt to have Henry on his side in the future.

William rubbed his chin, feeling scratchy stubble, and faked thoughtfulness for a moment. "I could probably get him fixed up, with the right tools and a bit of time. I'd probably need to do some work on his processor, if that's the problem with him. It shouldn't be too difficult, in any case." William

"W-well that'd be great. Uh, the last guy-the one who you're replacing-he never really tried fixing Foxy. Just kind of...gave up on him. So he hasn't been working the best for a while. A lot of the kids seem to love him, so it'd be terrific if he was running smoothly again. Anyway," Henry's thoughts flicked back to the job at hand, realising he'd gotten off topic, "that's the main four done. But, uh, these next two are really important, you'll see."

Henry strode out of Pirate's Cove, signalling William to follow. Henry sharply turned right and walked down a narrow hallway, until he reached another room, this one smaller than the main Dining Area, but larger than Pirate's Cove. It had a few tables, on each on were a few balloons tied together, held down by a weight of some kind to keep them from floating to the ceiling. On a large stage that took up most of the top part of the room were two yellow animatronics; a bear and a rabbit. They were easily the first thing anyone would see when they entered the room. Their vibrant golden fur stuck out like a sore thumb against the dull blue and white walls of the room they inhabited.

The bear was a simple recolour of Freddy's model, but with golden replacing Freddy's signature brown.

The rabbit, however, did not look like any of the other animatronics. The other animatronics, including Fredbear, were all large and bulky. The yellow bunny was slimmer, smoother, more akin to an actual person's body shape. Its head was shaped similarly to that of a human's, with the snout extending slightly outwards. It had a large, toothy grin, reaching from one end of its face to the other. Unlike the other rabbit, this one had no red guitar in its hands.

"This is Fredbear," Henry said, pointing to the yellow bear, "and Spring Bonnie," he pointed to the bunny beside him.

He smiled at William excitedly, obviously waiting to tell him something he thought would impress him.

"These two are specially designed costumes. They work as animatronics, but they can be worn as suits as well! Neat, huh?" Henry explained, a hint of pride in his voice.

"Impressive." William replied simply, raising his eyebrows slightly, not mirroring the reaction Henry had expected at all.

"Ye-uh, yeah..." Henry's smile faded. "Uh, anyway, they're called "spring-lock suits". Their endoskeleton can be compressed using a hand crank. That means there's a space inside the suit that an employee can fit into, and wear the animatronic as a suit..."

William listened to Henry drone on and on about the mechanics of the spring lock suits. He was merely pretending to listen in order to keep him content. He already knew exactly how and what the spring-lock suits were used for. It was the whole reason he'd wanted to take the job at Freddy's in the first place.

"Did you, uh, get all that?" Henry questioned, snapping William out of his thoughts.

"Oh, yes, yes. They're very dangerous, so I must make sure they are in perfect condition to be worn," William lied.

"Oh, great. So, uh, let me just show you the Safe Room, and then we'll be done!" Henry started walking down the narrow hallway again, his pace seeming to have increased. William was growing tired of rushing everywhere.

They walked through the Dining Area once more, and into a doorway on the far right side of the building, which led to the two restrooms. Walking past them led to a door, blending in with the rest of the wall, and covered in the dim lighting of the hallway.

"Here it is. No one would go looking for stuff near the toilets, right? It's the best place to hide stuff." Henry laughed somewhat nervously and pulled a key ring out of his shirt pocket and fumbled around, looking for the one to open the door in front of them. William simply watched, uninterested.

"Ah, here we go." Henry grabbed a small, silver key and stuck it into the keyhole, turning it and unlocking the door.

Inside was a small room full of shelves. On the shelves were spare heads, arms, torsos and other parts for the two golden spring lock suits William had just been introduced to.

"Uh, this is where employees should go if the suits do happen to, uh...well, you know..." Henry's muttered quickly, avoiding looking at William.

"I see..." William said thoughtfully. "So, does that kind of thing happen often?" he asked, a look of interest on his face.

Henry's expression turned into one of panic. "Oh no, no, no, no, no! Not at all! We-it hasn't even happened once yet! I-it's just a precaution, you know? In case any thing were to actually happen." Henry shook his hands at William, reassuring him.

"Alright, alright, it was just a question." William was taken aback by Henry's urgency.

"S-sorry...anyway, uh, that's pretty much it, I think." Henry quickly regained his composure, running his hand through his already untidy hair. "Um, just check up on the animatronics for tonight, see if they're working properly, especially the spring lock suits. Uh, there's some spare parts for the other four characters if you need them in the Parts and Service Room, right next to the Show Stage. The key's in the office if you need it." Henry flipped through his notebook again.

"Oh, right. Um, this might sound a bit...strange, but there's a music box in the room further down from the one where the spring suits were. You should keep it wound up to stop the music from stopping. Just, uh, pay it a visit every half hour or so and wind it up. The gears in it stop working after a while of not being used, so it's better to just always keep them moving..."

William knew very well that wasn't how gears worked, and he didn't know how Henry thought he could fool a technician about these things, but he didn't bother poking for answers. There was obviously something Henry wanted to hide from him, but it wasn't the most of his concerns. Not right now. "Right." he replied.

"Well, uh, guess we're done then." Henry smiled weakly. "Nice meeting you, William," he offered his hand.

"You too, Henry," William took Henry's hand and shook, forcing a smile on his lips to seem genuine.

"Well, I'll be heading now. Have a good night!" Henry bid William goodbye and exited the pizzeria, leaving William alone to his devices.

As soon as his instructor was safely out of sight, William rushed out to his car outside the restaurant, opening the trunk. Inside was a wrench and a pair of pliers. Those were the only tools he'd be needing for the job he'd be doing that night.

Returning to the building, William ignored the other animatronics Henry had told him to take care of and wasted no time in heading to the room that contained the two spring lock suits, dragged both of them to the safe room, one after another, and removed their costume to their inner workings. starting with Fredbear.

Pulling the pair of pliers from his pocket and having the wrench at his side, he was ready to begin his work.


	4. Chapter 3: The Party

Jack burst in through the front double doors of the bright restaurant, slightly out of breath. He surveyed the Dining Area of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, ignoring the angry, confused and startled looks strangers were giving him, until he spotted his friends sitting at a table near the middle of the room. He walked over to join them.

"Hey, sorry I'm late, I kinda forgot about it," he said casually to his four friends and two adults that he recognised as Lilly and Michael's mother and father, surrounding the party table, as if he hadn't just brought disrupted almost every other person in the room from their conversations.

Lilly frowned at Jack. She was dressed nicely for the occasion, wearing a simple yellow dress that reached down to her knees, and a white bow tied in her blonde hair that fell down her shoulders. "Why do you always have to be so loud? You didn't have to rush in like that, you know."

"Of course he did. He wouldn't be Jack if he didn't show up late and make a lot of noise for everything," Christopher replied snarkily, but only being half serious. Jack was used to it. Christopher always complained to Jack about his unthoughtful behaviour around other people.

Jack was what some people would call a trouble maker. It wasn't that he went out of his way to get into trouble with his parents or teachers. He just liked doing things his own way.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Anyway," he reached into the pocket of his navy coat and pulled out a small package, wrapped up in yellow and blue wrapping paper, "here's your gift Michael. Hope you like it."

"Thanks." Michael said timidly. Jack sometimes intimidated him with his rash and impetuous personality, though he knew he didn't mean to. He took the present from Jack's hands and place it with the other unwrapped presents he'd received that day, underneath the table.

"Good to see you made it, Jack," the man sitting next to Michael spoke up. He was the father of the siblings, a tall, thin man with shortly cut blonde hair and seemed to always be grinning.

"It's good to be here, Mr. Banks." Jack replied jokingly, making the jolly man laugh.

"So, did I already miss the cake? I would've loved a slice." Jack inquired, picking at a scab.

"No, we're actually waiting on some pizza right now," Mr. Banks' wife, Mrs. Banks answered. She was much different than her husband. She was always calm and was rarely seen smiling. "But now that you're all here, why don't you all go and play while we wait?"

The five children jumped at the idea, hastily standing up from their seats and practically sprinting to the Show Stage, where the band was performing a song.

"I hope you know this next song! It's one of my favorites," Freddy Fazbear said cheerfully. He had a deep, but goofy and light-hearted voice, making him sound like a friendly teddy bear to the children. While his voice was comforting and welcoming, his appearance was not so. His mouth was only loosely in sync with the words he was saying, moving up and down monotonously. His head and torso whirred slowly from side to side, making it seem like he was scanning the room for his audience. His blue eyes traveled around the room, rarely ever coming into contact with anyone.

"Every song is your favorite, Freddy!" Bonnie laughed from beside him. Bonnie had a low pitched and nasally voice, and he always said things in a joking or playful manner. His head snapped left to look at Freddy, his long ears twitching up and down.

"Hey, I have an idea! Why don't we sing a new song for the birthday boy today?" Chica suggested from the right side of the stage. Her voice was feminine and peppy, and she always sounded excited.

"What a great idea, Chica! Come on Bonnie, start the guitar and I'll sing along!" Freddy said enthusiastically.

Bonnie chuckled and his arm moved jerkily up and down his guitar, playing a song.

"Wow! They're playing a new song just for you, Michael!" Samantha said in awe, watching the animatronics intently.

"Yeah..." Michael smiled and watched the show as the lights began to fade and Freddy began to sing.

After their special performance for Michael, Foxy the Pirate's show began, and the curtains concealing the fox were opened.

"Ahoy, all ye sailo-lors!" Foxy called from his cove in a gruff and forced generic pirate accent, his voice box acting up. "Ye best be coming to the Pirate-Cove if adven-adventure is what ye seek!"

"Oh, cool! We should go see Foxy!" Samantha immediately started to rush over to Foxy.

"Sam, wait a second! I think Michael kind of wanted to get some prizes from the Puppet now." Lilly called after the energetic girl.

Samantha groaned. "You want to go see that creepy thing? Really, sometimes I have bad dreams about it. It doesn't even talk or move much or anything. Why would you want to go to it?"

"Well, I-" Michael began to quietly explain his reasons for wanting to visit the Prize Corner, when they were alerted to a new presence behind them. It was golden rabbit, with a permanent smile spreading from one cheek to another.

"Howdy, folks! Are you having a great time at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza?" the bunny asked in an over-the-top goofy voice.

"Hi, Spring Bonnie! We're having a great time here, I love Freddy's songs!" Christopher greeted the rabbit happily.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Fredbear, on the stage?" Jack asked curiously, surprised at the character's sudden appearance.

"Well, that's just the thing. Fredbear's sick! I've been trying to make him feel better all day, but it just isn't working..." the rabbit hung his head. "That's why he needs some of his friends to go visit him! To cheer him up!"

"Really? Fredbear's sick?" Lilly raised her eyebrows, concerned. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Well, you should come see him. That'll make him feel better!" the yellow bunny said.

"Well, we have to go! I want Fredbear to get better!" Christopher said.

Michael nodded his head at Christopher. "I want to go see Fredbear. It might make him feel better if he knows I'm having a good birthday."

"Well, if Michael wants to go, I'll go as well." Lilly decided.

"Yeah, I agree. We should all go." Jack eyed Samantha, who was still further away from the group, halfway to Pirate's Cove.

"But...I wanted to see Foxy..." Sam pleaded, motioning to Pirate's Cove, where Foxy was singing a sea shanty.

"Come on, Sam, we can see Foxy any time. Fredbear needs our help now," Christopher insisted.

Sam sighed in frustration. "Fine...but afterwards, we get to go see Foxy!"

The golden bunny eyed a particular party table, where two adults were talking with a waiter, ignorant to him and the children he had in tow.

"Well, come on kids! Follow me."

The cheerful rabbit led the five down the back of the restaurant, being careful to remain unseen, and passed the Show Stage and Pirate's Cove. Michael noticed that he seemed to move a bit stranger than usual; more stiff and rigid. His arms were barely moving at all. But then, perhaps he was just sad about his friend's illness.

"It's just over here!" the leader sang, approaching the hallway leading to the bathrooms.

"Fredbear's in the...bathrooms?" Jack asked sceptically, raising a brow.

"No, silly! He's in a secret room where all my friends play after the show! But you have to promise not to tell anyone about it!" the rabbit explained, that tone of joy remaining in his voice.

At last the six of them arrived at their destination. It was a door, painted to blend in with the colour of the wall around it, at the end of the hallway.

"Okay, kids, are you ready to meet Fredbear?" the bunny giggled. He pushed the door open slightly. "On the count of three, you run in and yell "surprise!" to Fredbear! He'll love it!"

The children readied themselves, preparing to shout as loudly as they could for Fredbear.

"One...two...three!" the rabbit pushed the door wide open, and in ran the children.

"SURPRISE!" they shouted simultaneously, throwing their arms in the air and jumping up and down. But upon seeing the room they were now in, the emotion turned into one of shock and fear, that each of them felt.

"Wha-why..." Christopher slowly looked around the room, seeing no Fredbear, but instead multiple pieces of him, displayed on shelves.

"F-Fredbear..." Lilly covered her mouth and backed away from the sight.

A quiet, sinister laugh came from behind them, from the doorway. There stood Spring Bonnie, his head ripped off and held in his hands, and in it's place was the face of a man, with messy black hair, stubble on his chin. His eyes were cold and calculating, but he had a slight grin on his face, mirroring the one Spring Bonnie had worn moments ago.

"Surprise."


	5. Chapter 4: The Missing Children Incident

"Spring Bonnie, what...what's going on?! Why is Fredbear cut up into bits?! _Why did you take off your head?!_ " Christopher exclaimed, trying and failing to hold back the tears in his eyes.

"Spring Bonnie" shut the hidden door behind him, his eyes locked on Christopher, the smirk staying on his face as he did so. "I'm not Spring Bonnie. I thought you would've guessed that by now." He walked over to a table in the middle of the room, where the spring-lock suits were put on to be repaired, gaze never faltering with the young boy who was now sobbing, along with some of the other children.

"Spring Bonnie isn't real. Neither is Fredbear, nor Freddy, nor Bonnie, nor any of them. They're robots, animatronics." It was only then that he broke his stare, to look down at the golden suit or Spring Bonnie he had used for his maleficent trick. He removed the metallic gloves that covered his hands to use his nimble fingers, and pulled something at the back of the suit. He proceeded to carefully remove his arms from those of the suit's, then pulled his arms behind his back, fumbling at something. The suit split open at the back, and William pulled it off him, freeing himself from the suit's treacherous grasp, all the while the five friends stared, mouths agape, frozen to the spot.

Underneath the disguise was a lanky man, sporting a grey, formal shirt with a magenta collar. His face was pink and flushed from being in the golden mask. His black hair was tousled, and his skin was gaunt on his narrow face, and he had a menacing look in his eyes. William Afton swept his hair out of face and faced the five quivering children before him.

Jack broke the silence. "Who are you? What do you want?!" he shouted in a bold voice, although his panicked eyes and shaking hands betrayed him.

William sneered. "Call me William," he answered simply. "And what I want with you..." he turned turned to the shelf to the right of him and picked up another Spring Bonnie head. He put his hand up the bottom of it, a look of concentration on his face, and pulled it out, wielding a sharp blade, "Well, I think that's self-explanatory."

At the sight of the weapon, Lilly shrieked and burst into tears, falling to the ground. "Ple-please don't hurt me, Mr. William! I-I'm sorry! Please jus-just let us go!" she begged, her vision blurred by tears.

Upon seeing his sister break down, Michael too began wailing and thrashing around, shouting something unintelligible and shaking his head.

The sight of her friends in such a state filled Samantha to the brim with something she'd never felt before; pure and total hatred towards this man. Whatever he planned on doing to her or her friends, she would not allow it to happen. Yelling a war cry, Sam charged blindly forwards, raising her fists in an effort to hit whatever she could of the man.

William frowned and grabbed her by her outstretched arm. He lifted her off the ground, ignoring her shouts of protest, and roughly threw her to the ground next to him. Samantha groaned in pain from the impact. William booted her in the side.

"Don't bother trying. I'm an adult. You are a child," William's voice increased in volume, and his voice became a snarl. "Your thoughtless actions will only hurt those close to you."

William abruptly snatched up Christopher in his right arm, clenching the blade in his left.

"No! Please...please don't...!" Christopher whimpered, struggling to break free of the killer's firm grasp.

"Let this be a warning to the rest of you; don't try to fight back." Afton brought the knife under Christopher's chin, then, shoved it upwards, piercing through his lower jaw and tongue, into the roof of his mouth.

Christopher made a coughing noise, which quickly turned into gurgling as blood filled his mouth. William ripped the now bloodied knife out of the boy's chin, and stabbed it into his forehead, smashing his glasses.

Chris fell to the ground, a pool of blood spreading around his body.

"CHRIS!" Lilly called out. Her face in a state of utter terror, but she didn't dare move from her spot, in fear of what William would do to her.

Michael had his face buried in his hands, shaking his head and muttering something to himself. He had closed his eyes when Afton grabbed Christopher, and hadn't seen his death.

Jack was shaking with not only fear, but anger. His teeth were clenched together as tightly as they could be, and he stood rigid. He felt as though he would explode at any minute if he didn't lash out at the sinister man and make him pay for what he had done, but something held him back. He didn't want to see what he'd done to Chris, but he couldn't take his eyes off his body, not even when William approached him, twiddling with the weapon he'd used to take his life.

William grabbed him by the collar of his red shirt and pulled him up, face-to-face with him, snapping Jack out of his trance.

"You seem stressed. Why don't you just relax? We're all friends here," William said coolly.

Jack wanted to wipe that smile off the murderer's blood-splattered face. He felt the rise of bile in his throat, and in frustration he kicked his leg, successfully hitting Afton in the stomach.

William grunted and dropped Jack, who fell on his back and began scooting away from him. The man was hunched over, clutching his stomach. There was fury on his face when he recovered, and he stomped over to the fearful yet audacious boy, determined not to his prey get the best of him this time. He lifted his foot and pressed down hard on his chest, pinning him to the ground. Jack squirmed writhed around in hope for freedom, but William plunged the blade of his weapon into his right eye, causing Jack to howl in shock and agony, clutching his wound.

William stabbed Jack's face repeatedly with his dagger, his hand going up and coming down swiftly. In a matter of seconds, the boy's face was an almost unrecognisable mess of flesh and blood.

Afton's stabbing slowed down to a halt, and he was panting slightly from his frustration. Samantha was still lying on the floor, next to the door. Lilly was now standing next to Michael, attempting to calm down the quivering child, hugging him closely to her.

William wiped the blood splatters off his face and hands and turned next to the pair of them. Lilly was visibly shaking as she blocked his path to Michael, standing between her brother and the vile figure.

Afton arched an eyebrow, somewhat impressed by the young girl's protectiveness of her sibling. If she wanted to be an obstacle in his path, he'd have to remove her.

William balled his fist and punched her, knocking her to the wall next to her.

Raising his knife, ready to bring it down into her, Lilly summoned every ounce of courage she had in her being, and weakly punched William in the chest, accomplishing nothing.

Afton quickly caught hold of her small wrist as it came into contact with his skin. His face was stony, unlike the wild and furious expression he'd worn when killing Jack and Chris. "I thought I told you not to fight back," he said in an authoritative voice. He held her pinky, and fingers tightly. Lilly bit her lip as she stared up at him.

"HELP!" Lilly shrieked at the top of her lungs. "HELP, SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP!"

"Don't think that will work, the room's soundproof. Did you think I didn't anticipate one of you brats would try to scream for help?" William continued to bend the girl's fingers. "Didn't you see what happened to your friends?" he nodded towards the corpses of the two boys lying on the floor. His grip tightened further as he bent the girl's dainty fingers to the side, causing her to squeal and try to pull away from his hold on her fingers. "I warned you, and yet you still tried to defy me. You must care about that brother of yours very much." William bent more and more, ignoring Lilly's resistance, until a loud snapping noise could be heard, and Lilly screeched in pain and fell to the floor, staring at her twisted fingers.

William took the opportunity and pierced his blade into her throat, making a clean cut straight through.

Afton was prepared to use his knife on the shaking form of Michael in front of him, when Samantha began shifting from the other side of the room.

"Oh, I thought I'd finished you." William left Michael and walked calmly over to Sam. He crouched down and placed two fingers beneath her chin, lifting her head up and exposing her neck.

"No..." Samantha muttered feebly, but William stabbed the blade into her throat and sliced down to her stomach, creating a deep incision.

William removed his weapon and faced Michael, still holding his head in his little hands. He pondered what he could do with him, now that he was defenseless and alone.

Afton checked his watch, seeing the time; 3:50. He'd spent roughly twenty minutes luring the children into the Safe Room and murdering them. The two adults he'd seen siting at their table and speaking with a waiter when he'd last seen them would be wondering where they'd gone by now, and he'd told Henry he'd be done work on the spring suits by four. He had to finish off Michael quickly.

Surveying the room, William found just what he needed; the slumped over body of a Fredbear suit sat in the corner. Grinning to himself, William dragged the suit into the middle of the room, then went over to Michael, held him by the stomach and plucked him off the floor, causing the young boy to breath heavily and bawl harder.

"Sorry, Michael. I'll have to finish this off quickly," William carried the child over to the suit with ease, Michael not even trying to fight back like the others had done, "this will only hurt a bit."

He plopped him down into the suit, where his tiny head in comparison to the animatronic's body was all that could be seen. William reached up to the top shelf on the wall next to him and took a spare Fredbear costume head. He reunited it with its body, and it hung to the side limply, its jaw hanging open. Michael was still crying from inside.

William looked through the eye holes of the golden mask. "I wouldn't cry so much if I were you, friend. Those spring locks are very delicate, and who knows what would happen if they came loose..."

As if on cue, a loud popping noise could be heard. The noise started out quiet, then grew louder and louder, blocking out Michael's screams. Then, a loud _BANG_ came from the suit, as if a gun had been shot at it. Michael's cries became louder than before, almost animal-like, and blood oozed from the cracks and holes of the suit and mask. Michael's screams soon began to die down, becoming quieter and quieter, until at last there was silence one again.

It was done. Five children lured into the back room, five children killed in the back room. William looked at the room. Blood stained the floor and walls like a new coat of paint, and there were bodies strewn in every corner. He'd come back later for his night shift to clean up the place. He told Henry to tell the other employees not to enter the Safe Room until he knew what was wrong with the suits, as they could break or damage something valuable, and of course Henry fell for the excuse hook, line and sinker, so he had no need to fear for his secret being kept.

His thoughts drew him back to the Fredbear suit containing Michael's mangled corpse. It had been improvised, as he'd been running out of time, but he quite liked the idea of hiding the bodies _inside_ the animatronic characters. No one would think to check in them, and he'd be the only one with access to the suits. It would be ironic, in a way. The friendly anthropomorphic animals hiding the restaurant's dirty secrets. The smell might be a problem, but he'd burn that bridge when he came to it.

William checked his watch again. 3:56. He silently bid goodbye to the children and exited the room, hearing Freddy's "Toreador March" jingle, which signaled the end of the show.

Christopher was the first to awaken. Everything was black. All he could see for miles and miles was darkness. Then his vision came to him. Something was wrong. He was in a place he didn't recognise and there was something obstructing his vision. He tried to turn his head to get a better view of his surroundings, but his neck moved slowly. He realised that even below his neck everything was different. He fall bigger, fatter. He felt...hair. He was naked, but he felt hair on his body. He tried to turn his head again, and noted a slight whirring sound. He tried to remember what had happened. There was...Spring Bonnie...something to do with Fredbear...?

His neck stopped turning as he caught sight of something next to him. A large, bulky, blue figure with long ears, and holding something in its hands. Was that... _Bonnie?_ If he was next to Bonnie, then that could only mean...

"You're awake. Good," a voice said. It was calm, smooth, relaxing. But it was strange and sounded young. A face came into view. No, not a face. A pale, glossy mask, with bright colours painted onto it. Red cheeks, lipstick, purple marks running from its eyes to its mouth. It was familiar. He'd seen it before. It was the Puppet.

"Welcome to my world."


	6. Chapter 5: Rebirth

"Wha..." Christopher muttered dumbly, not yet coming to terms with the situation. He was almost overwhelmed by the things that he was beginning to notice, like the lines of party table in the darkness behind the grinning, pale face of the Puppet, or the lack of a few digits on his hands and feet. Or the realisation that he was no longer breathing.

Chris quickly opened his mouth, which was now split in half, and felt as his his mandible might come loose and fall off at any moment, and desperately gasped for air, but he never felt the relief of oxygen entering his lungs.

"What's happening? Where am I? What's going on?!" As he said these words, he felt no tongue rolling around in his mouth. He no longer needed to move his mouth to communicate at all, sending him into a further state of hysteria.

The thin black figure in front of him raised its arms and held both sides of Christopher's face, which felt different in every way. His cheeks were too curved, too artificial to be his. He felt no hair tickling his forehead. The Puppet pulled Christopher's face towards its own, silencing him. Chris saw in those pitch black, hollow eyes, two shining, white dots, staring into his own eyes.

"Calm down. You need to calm down, right now. I'll help you, you just need to be quiet," the Puppet ordered. It sounded authoritative and tense at first, but its voice then became more comforting as it continued talking.

Christopher obeyed, not in interest, but in fear or what the Puppet, who he'd never heard saying a single thing, could do to him. It had already turned him into some kind of monster, who knew the extent of its power?

"Good. That's good. Just relax," the Puppet said quietly, removing its thin, felt hands from his face, and Chris wondered whether it was talking to him, or itself.

"I'm sorry if I startled you. I was just...eager, to talk with someone again. Someone who could actually hear me..." the Puppet sounded more hospitable now.

 _I'm dreaming,_ Chris thought to himself, remembering the feeling of...falling asleep in the pizzeria previously. _I just fell asleep and I'm dreaming...but I know I'm dreaming. Everything feels...real._

"I suppose I should wait until the others wake up as well. Your friends, that is," the Puppet continued speaking almost casually to him, though Chris barely registered his voice as he caught sight of his hand. His large, brown, hairy, four fingered hand. He tried moving his fingers, and the brown ones he was staring at passed the test, as they bent and unbent as he told them. In his other hand was a grey microphone, though he wasn't telling his hand to wrap its fuzzy fingers around it. Straightening them out manually, the mic dropped to the brown, wooden floor beneath him, and Christopher could now move the fingers on both hands, though they clearly weren't his.

"What did you do to me...?" Christopher squeaked, still peering at "his" hands. He felt as though he would begin to cry and never stop, but he felt nothing welling up inside of him.

"I..." the Puppet started, sounding almost apologetic, when the blue figure Chris had seen to his right, Bonnie's, eyes brightened, and he raised his head slightly. Christopher lowered his new hands to observe the awakening of Bonnie.

"Ah, finally. I was beginning to worry I'd done it wrong," the Puppet said, relieved. It walked-no, _floated_ , over to the animatronic beside him, who was turning his head to the right and left slightly.

The Puppet silently gestured Chris to follow him with its long fingers, and hesitantly, he walked forward-and almost fell flat on his face. His center of gravity was all wrong. He was much too big, he realised. He tried lowering his head to see the rest of his body, but once again his neck's reach was short, and he could just barely see more brown hair, and what looked to be black spots. He decided it was better to stay put and view the scene from where he was.

"Ugh..." Bonnie groaned, in a voice that was not his own. He swivelled his head to meet Christopher, and his eyelids widened.

"Hello," the Puppet greeted cheerfully, deciding to introduce itself in a more mannerly way, it seemed to Chris.

"Huh...?! Where...?" Bonnie's glowing, red eyes frantically switched between the Puppet and Chris. He thought the voice Bonnie spoke in sounded familiar, but racking his mind, he couldn't put his finger on where he had heard it before.

"I know this might seem a bit strange, but I must assure you that everything is fine," the Puppet informed Bonnie, floating steadily closer to him.

Bonnie remained silent, his eyes fixed on that ever-smiling mask of the Puppet.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help you," it continued, raising its hands in a gesture of peace.

Bonnie began moving his mouth slowly up and down, as if trying to say something, but no words came out. He proceeded to release his grip on the crimson guitar, which fell from his hands to the ground with an echoing clatter.

" _No!"_ the Puppet hissed, its focus jumping to the fallen instrument, then to the darkness beyond the three on the wooden floor. Upon seeing nothing, it turned back to the rabbit.

"Don't do that again! You'll attract their attention!" the Puppet said sharply. The two stared at each other in silence for a moment, Bonnie raising his hands to his face, lowering his jaw and turning his head.

"I...what's going on here?" Bonnie finally. His voice was one of accusation and consternation, though his face remained the same bored expression Christopher had seen on him when he first activated.

Then it came to Christopher, in a rush of recollection. The voice, the familiar voice Bonnie spoke in. The lazy, uncaring voice of a young boy. Black hair. A sly grin.

"Jack?!" Christopher blurted out.

Bonnie twisted his head towards him in recognition. "Chris?!"

Jack was Bonnie. Bonnie was Jack. Jack was not Jack, he was Bonnie. Christopher tried desperately to wrap around this revelation, the gears turning in his head, but it left him stumped. There was no way this was possible. How does a boy become a rabbit? And yet, there stood Bonnie the Bunny, the blue guitar playing rabbit, speaking in in his friend's voice, and responding to his name.

"You're..." Jack trailed off, looking Chris up and down.

The two stared in awe at one another in silence for a minute or two. How much time passed, neither could say.

"Oh no..." the Puppet groaned, holding its hand to the side of its face, "This isn't what it was supposed to be like at all..."

Behind them, another voice alerted the trio to its presence. Turing, Christopher saw to the other side of him Chica the Chicken, slowly turning her head, just as Christopher and Jack had done when they'd awoken from their slumber. She surveyed her surroundings, and her eyes rested on three figures.

"Oh...what are you doing here, Freddy and Bonnie? And..." she stopped as she spotted the Puppet, floating in the middle of the two, it's eyes shining. She slowly raised a yellow hand to her beak, and then pulled it away immediately, as if it hand burned her.

"Hello, I'm-" the Puppet was interrupted by Chica emitting shrill cry, spastically shaking her head and torso to and fro. Christopher shuddered. If he had somehow become Freddy, which he'd figured was the truth from what he'd gathered of his new appearance, and Jack had become Bonnie, then it was most likely Lilly who had taken on the appearance of Chica.

"Shhh!" the Puppet hissed, suddenly diving towards "Chica". It pushed its face into hers, just as it had done to Christopher when he had acted out due to the shock of his new body.

"Please, I know you're stressed and worried and frightened, _but you need to stop screaming like that,"_ it whispered.

Lilly's scream lowered to a whimper, as she stiffly nodded her head in acknowledgement.

"Lilly," Chris said soothingly, though he was momentarily taken off guard once again by his mouth's lack of movement, "It's alright. It's me, Chris. And," Chris raised a robotic arm and pointed it to the animatronic to his right, "That's Jack. I don't know what's going on either, but we're here with you."

Lilly glanced at Christopher, then to Jack, then to the Puppet, who was still only inches away from her face. "How...how did this happen...?"

The Puppet loosened its grip on Chica's costume head, and slunk away from her.

"Don't you all remember what happened to you?" it inquired, tilting its head slightly in what appeared to be exasperation.

"I...I kind of remember. I remember Spring Bonnie and...and..." Jack trailed off, searching in his memory.

"It was Michael's birthday, I'm pretty sure," Lilly piped up. "Spring Bonnie came and he told us Fredbear was sick."

"Yeah, you're right!" Jack agreed, "He told us Fredbear was in a room where all the characters went after the show."

"No," Chris said suddenly.

"What? Chris, I remember it crystal clear now, that's exactly what happened!" Jack insisted indignantly.

"No, I mean, it wasn't Spring Bonnie," Chris explained, concentrating hard, "It was...it was..."

"William Afton," the Puppet sourly finished Christopher's sentence for him.

The three children-turned-animatronics froze at the mention of that name. It was only then that they recalled the man underneath the fur, the dagger, the blood. Each of them would have felt sick to their stomachs, if their insides hadn't been turned into cold metal and gears.

Somewhere in the dark abyss in front of them, there was a resounding sound of metal hitting metal, followed by a loud crash, a ripping noise, and two glowing lights shone brightly in the sea of blackness, illuminating their surroundings.

"Hello? Who's there?" a girl's voice called that rang bells in the children's troubled minds.

"S-Sam?" Lilly called back.

"Lilly? Is that you? I need help! I can't see anything, and I feel...weird!" the disembodied voice cried.

"I will guide her," the Puppet suggested, and made its way forward, off the raised stage. There was no sound of collision, indicating that it knew its way around the building.

They heard the noise of voices squabbling, belonging to the Puppet and Samantha. The two lights approached the stage slowly, guided by a tall, thin figure.

When Samantha had drawn near enough, the children finally got a look at her. As they'd all silently anticipated, she had the appearance of the red pirate fox, hook and all. Her snout hung open as she hobbled across the floor.

And as she was bathed in the glow of the three pairs of eyes on her, she could also see herself. Her reaction was as the others had expected. She examined her hand, her hook.

"What is this?! Why do I...look like Foxy? Where's Lilly?!" she demanded, pulling open her long, narrow snout to reveal two mouth fulls of sharpened teeth, investigating her new form.

"I'm here, Sam," Lilly responded gravely from the stage. She clumsily moved her feet forward to prove herself.

Sam narrowed her eyelids at Lilly in suspicion, then looked over at the other two animatronics. "This is a joke, right? There's no way-"

"Look, Sam, or whatever your name may be, I don't want to have to go through this again. I know it's hard to believe, but this is the truth. How else would you look like Foxy?" the Puppet interrupted irritably from just behind her.

Samantha glanced back down at her hook, then looked back at Lilly, conflicted.

"We're here too. I'm Jack, and Chris is Freddy," Jack alerted Samantha, nodding his head towards Christopher next to him, his long, blue ears waggling.

"Chris...?" Freddy nodded stiffly yet solemnly from on the stage. "So...this really isn't a trick? We actually all got turned into the characters...?" Sam asked, this time defeated.

"Sam, do you...remember anything? From before we became like this? Do you know what happened to Michael? Is he alright?" Lilly questioned, eager to get straight to the point.

"No, not really...I don't remember much at all. But, I do remember it was Michael's birthday. Why? What happened to us?"

"Sam, we...we _died_ ," Chris said reluctantly, "Don't you remember...? There was that man, William, in the Spring Bonnie suit. He told us Fredbear was sick, and he led us to a secret room. And he pulled out a knife..." Christopher stopped, seeing the distant look in Samantha's plastic, yellow eyes. She remembered, and it looked like she remembered every bit of it.

The fox trembled and shook in rage. "Yeah...he...he stabbed me. He sliced my chest open. He told us the characters were just robots...that's why I don't feel anything..." Sam suddenly turned and raised her hooked hand threateningly at the Puppet, standing just feet away from them, staying silent the entire time.

"Okay, you. I don't know who you are or what you have to do with anything, but you're going to tell us what's going on, right now!" she growled, stepping towards it.

"...Okay. I didn't want to tell you until you had all gotten over it a bit, but..." its glowing pupils met the eyes of everyone in the room, "That was wrong of me. I should have told you what happened to you when you first awoke. So, I'll tell you everything, from the beginning."

"Firstly, I was a child, just like all of you, once. My name is Sammy."


	7. Chapter 6: Tearful Memories

"Wait," Jack interrupted, causing the Puppet to look at him with what he guessed was supposed to be a glare, "Are you saying that all this time, you were actually a kid, but you turned into that thing, like us? That doesn't make any sense. How come you just sit in that music box all day and just give kids prizes when they get enough tokens for stuff?"

"Look, I understand that it is a little hard to believe, but considering your current dilemma, are any of you really in any position to doubt me?" it replied, causing Jack to fall silent once more.

"Now, as I was saying, my name is Sammy," he resumed his story, "I was a child like you before I became like this. I was at Fredbear's Family Diner-that's the restaurant that was before this one, if you didn't know-and I was standing outside the building, crying. It was my friend's birthday, but...he didn't invite for some reason. The door was locked, for some reason. I couldn't get in. So I looked in the window, just watching them enjoying their cake..." Sammy briefly hesitated, although he quickly returned to his tale.

"Then...then a purple car pulled up on beside me. And _he_ got out. He told me his name was William. I don't remember much about him, but he was tall, really tall, and he had a strange purple shirt to match his car. He asked me why I was sad. I...I didn't want to talk to him at first, but...he just...seemed so nice," Sammy hung his head shamefully, "He asked me what was wrong, so I told him. Then...then he asked if I wanted a hug. That was when I panicked. I tried to get away, but he...grabbed me. He started to choke me, he held me down on the ground. Then he pulled a knife from his pocket and...and..." he struggled to continue, his voice sounding forced, "And he stabbed me. I died. No one...came to help me. I just died alone." The room was silent. None of the others dared to speak.

"I...I'm not certain what happened next. It's all kind of fuzzy. I remember waking up again, outside the diner. At first I was scared. I distinctly remembered dying, but I was still there. I could float around, and phase through stuff, and no one seemed to be able to hear me or see me. So, I came to the conclusion that I was a ghost. I was scared at first; no one could help me, so I just floated all around the building, trying to get someone's attention. I tried to remember all the things ghosts were supposed to be able to do; float around, go invisible, pass through things, throw stuff around, and control things like puppets.

"That's when I got the idea. There were two characters in Fredbear's; Fredbear himself, and the Puppet. The Puppet didn't really do anything, it just hung from the ceiling and gave out gifts, like it does nowadays. So, I had a go at controlling it, moving it around. I figured it would be easier to control since it was a puppet, and that's what puppets are for, and Fredbear was big and heavy and probably hard to move.

"So, I floated over to it and tried to move it around. I tried grabbing its arms and moving them around, but my hands just passed through them. I tried pulling the strings that held it from the ceiling, but that didn't work either. Then I had the bright idea of floating into the Puppet; maybe I could control it from the inside like a costume. That's when it happened. I didn't feel like I was floating anymore, I felt like I was being...dangled on a thread. I tried to move my limbs, and I realised they were strung up, attached to pieces of string that held them in place. It didn't take me long to realise what had happened.

"I tried to call out to someone, get their attention. But by then, my body had been discovered. People were rushing outside to get a good long look at me, lying on the ground, dead. One child stayed, though, a little girl, I think it was. I shouted to her, "Hey, you! Come over here, I need help!"" Sammy curled his long fingers.

"But, before she could do anything to assist me, a woman rushed in through the door; the girl's mother. I thought that I told her who I was and what happened, she could help me," Sammy's voice subtly grew louder, a slight tone of anger in his voice, "I said to her, "Miss, please help me! I don't know what happened, but a man stabbed me, and I think I'm dead!" Brilliant idea, I know," he crossed his spindly arms, seeming frustrated with himself, "Her face turned pale, almost completely white. She just...stared at me for a second. Just stood there. Of course, if you heard an inanimate marionette talking to you, its eyes glowing, saying it had been stabbed and killed following the discovery of a boy lying dead on the ground outside, you'd be terrified as well.

"She picked her daughter up in her arms and ran screaming out of the diner before I could even talk to the little girl..." Sammy said bitterly.

"I realised, of course, that my plan wouldn't work. No one would talk to me when I looked like this. So, I tried to leave, but...I couldn't. I was stuck. I tried everything, calming down, hoping I would just float out of the thing, pushing myself to leave it, everything. And, well, that brings us to today. I've been stuck like this since back then," as he finished recounting his story, there was an obvious mournful air about him, although his uncanny grin said otherwise.

"How...how long have you been here?" Christopher asked, somewhat fearing the answer.

Sammy paused. "What year is it?"

"1983," the bear replied, surprised at Sammy's ignorance. The thought that someone could lose their grasp on time so much that they had no idea what the current year was shook him. "June 26th," he added to be clear.

Sammy thought for a moment, "I died in 1975, so that's...eight years."

"Eight YEARS?!" Samantha bellowed, "I don't want to be a dumb fox for more than eight minutes!"

"If you would let me speak, perhaps I could tell you about the rest of the story," Sammy snapped. "There is a way to be set free, but you have to listen to me."

"Moving on, I've been stuck here for eight years. Death...changed me. I became worried about everything, I was always angry. I knew things that I didn't before. Information just popped into my head. Things about death, ghosts, my full potential..." once again, his eyes scanned the room, pausing briefly on each animatronic character.

"And that's where all of you come in. The five of you came here, and William killed you. He's been working here for about a month now, I think. I'm not sure; you lose track of time when you're dead. I knew it was him as soon as I saw him, as soon as I heard his voice...

"I've been monitoring him for a while now, whenever I get the chance. Sometime I see him on the day shift, sometimes I can hear him at night. As you can probably imagine, it's hard considering the fact that I'm trapped inside that box unless the music stops. Only then does the box open.

"Fortunately for me, he was on the night shift, and he forgot to wind it up. I was able to escape, but by then he was already gone. It must be 6 AM now. That's when the night guard get to leave. In between then and when the other people start coming in, there's a gap, leaving the place empty. Most of the time it's slim, but fate has been generous tonight, and they seem to be later than usual. That's why I wanted you all to keep quiet. They could walk through the door at any moment now, and if they see any of you acting strange, they will know something is wrong, they'll be alerted to your presence, they'll think that something is wrong with the animatronics, and try to fix you. And when they can't do that, they'll get rid of you, throw you out and get a new model. I myself have my own ways of keeping hidden, but you five do not.

"So, I escaped from my box and I came out to check if he was still there. I didn't find him, but I did find you," Sammy stopped himself. " I don't know if you want to hear this, so just...prepare yourselves. When I approached the...animatronics on the stage, I noticed something was off about them. I could just sense it. I inspected them a bit, looked inside of them and such, and...and I found bodies. Your bodies."

"What? That's-" Jack began.

"I'm sorry, but it's true. William must have shoved them in there after he was done with you," Sammy said bluntly.

Chris slowly moved his arms to his blocky head. He grasped his lower jaw in his left hand, and held the top of his head, just above his right eye, in his right hand.

"Chris, what are you...?" Lilly began to ask. She knew what he was doing, but she had asked anyway, in hopes of making him stop.

Chris ignored her. He pulled his arms in opposite direction, pulling apart the brown, fuzzy costume until his endoskeleton face underneath the friendly mask could be seen. It was made of silver metal, flecked with dark, red spots, and was very basic in its design. It was square shaped and jagged, and near the bottom of it were two metal disks connected to the main portion of the head, lined with small, sharp teeth, making up the endoskeleton jaw of Freddy. A few wires hung from its face and various visible nuts and bolts held it together.

Christopher's blue eyes looked around. "Can you see anything?" he asked the others. The slightly widened eyelids of the animals they inhabited were the only thing that gave away their fear.

"That's what was underneath the masks the whole time?" Lilly's voice trembled as she stared at the face, "Chris, I think...is that blood on your face?"

Jack stepped closer to Christopher and peered into the bottom of the costume's mask. Sure enough, he could faintly see a clump of blonde hair through the hole.

He looked gravely back up to meet Christopher's eyes. "I can see some hair. Blonde hair."

Chris released his hold on the mask, and it fell back down into place, concealing the metal skull again. He said nothing.

"It's like I said," Sammy said, "He hid your bodies in the suits, that monster."

"But it's not all bad. That's how I was able to give life the five of you. Your physical bodies were already inside the animatronics, and I was able to transfer your soul into them. You possessed them. That means that your soul, which was previously controlling your human bodies, is now controlling the animatronics, like what happened with me," he swiftly added the last sentence upon seeing a similar looking confused look on their faces, though it was hard to tell considering the animatronics' lack of expressions.

"So we really are dead..." Samantha said hopelessly. "Does that mean we're just stuck here now? I want to go home..."

"There is, however, one way to be set free from these prisons," Sammy said, audibly excited. "The reason we are here is because we have unfinished business. We cannot move on. Not until we find our killer. And that's what we will do."

"And what will we do when we find him?" Christopher asked, ignorant to what it was that Sammy was implying.

"What do you think, stupid? We're going to get back at him," Jack hissed to Christopher.

"Wait, you mean like...kill him?"

Sammy nodded his head. "It's the only way we can rest. Only when William Afton is dead will we have our happiest day."

Chris seemed distressed at that answer, but as he was about to protest, Lilly spoke up.

"Wait," she said suddenly, "Do you know what happened to the boy who was with us? His name is Michael, he's short, he's got curly brown hair, he was wearing a yellow shirt when we came here, and he isn't here, so he must have gotten away without us."

"Ah. Yes. Michael." Sammy was now staring intently at the floor, avoiding Lilly's gaze. "Well, he...he's here. Well, not here, but he's, um, dead."

"What? He's dead? Where is he?" they all asked, their voices shouting over each other, eager to have their questions answered.

"Alright, alright, calm down!" Sammy urged, "I'll take you to him, but he isn't in the best of conditions."

"Not like we really are either," Samantha muttered under her breath as she followed Sammy, who was briskly gliding across the checkered black and white floor towards the restroom hallway.

The four followed behind him with much difficulty. They were all still getting accustomed to their new bodies and took their steps with caution as they tried to maneuver their way to the hallway. Samantha was slightly quicker than the rest of them, as Foxy was much slimmer than the three onstage.

"Over here," Sammy said. He was next to the hidden door now, waiting for the others.

"How come you get to float?" Jack grumbled, stomping through the hall.

"I've been here longer," the thin marionette replied simply. "Uh, could someone else open the door? I can't really hold things with these," he held up his hands sheepishly.

Samantha, who had reached the door first, grasped the rusty door handle and turned it, pushing and opening the door. She froze at the sight that greeted her.

"Sam, you're blocking the door! Let me see!" Chris protested, trying to push past the red fox. He caught sight of the golden suit as soon as she stepped aside to make way. "Woah..."

Jack followed Christopher into the room, then Lilly, who was much slower than the others.

Once again, they were inside the room with shelves lined with animatronic parts belonging to the duo of golden spring lock suits. In the center of the room was a slumped over Fredbear suit, its head hung to one side and its mouth hung lazily open, revealing a bloody endoskeleton jaw inside. What looked to be human teeth littered the inside of the jaw, and there were blood stains in the parts of the costume where the arm met the barrel-shaped torso. A pair of eyeballs hung from the wide-open mouth. If the children had the ability to, they would surely be retching at the sight and smell.

"Is that...?" Lilly asked Sammy quietly. He nodded silently.

"Michael, is that really you?" Lilly was in disbelief as she stepped towards the defiled suit. There was no reply for a moment. And then a young, timid voice replied back;

"Yeah. It's me."


	8. Chapter 7: Cleaning the Dirt

William exited the clandestine room and turned into the empty doorway of the men's toilets. He thoroughly washed his hands and face of any revealing blood splatters and had already changed into his clean clothes, identical to the grey shirt and blue jeans he had worn when murdering the five children. After making sure there was no trace of the blood he'd spilled, he left the corridor and entered the main area. Henry spotted him almost immediately, as if he had been monitoring the door to the hallway, waiting for him to walk through. He briskly made his way over to him, avoiding a child throwing a tantrum, screaming in refusal to leave the building with their parents.

"Hey, William. Made any progress on the suits yet?" he asked anxiously. He was drumming his fingers against the side of his leg; a telltale sign that something was on his mind.

"Not yet. The problem might be a bit more complex than I first thought," Afton replied stiffly.

"Oh," Henry said simply. "And, uh..." He lowered his voice and bent in closer to William, "You haven't seen any...kids, back there, have you? It's just, uh, a couple seem to have lost a group of kids they were watching, five of them, I think, and uh, we can't seem to find any of them."

William did not panic; he'd expected that the parents would already have found out that their children were missing by the time he'd finished with them. He maintained his casual expression, but arched a brow. "Sorry, Henry, I've been working in the Safe Room all day, I haven't seen anything but those suits."

"Right, right..." Henry went on. He ran his bony hands through his hair. "W-well, it's probably nothing to be concerned about, anyway. They, um, they're probably just playing a game of hide-and-seek, or something. We'll have another look around and, uh, we'll probably find them. Um, anyway," Henry plainly changed the topic, "You're doing some overtime tomorrow as well, right? Think you'll get those suits fixed up? N-not that there's any pressure, but, you know, the boss wants them up and running again ASAP."

"I'll try my best, but you know how it is, sometimes machines just don't cooperate with you. Just make sure no one wears them in the meantime, or goes into the Safe Room. I've got a lot of stuff set up in there, and anyone could just come in and mess with my equipment," William explained smoothly.

"Sure thing, I've already warned them." Henry looked down at his silver wristwatch, more out of habit than anything else, and gave William a half-smile. "Well, uh, if that's all, you're free to go," he joked.

William smiled and said goodbye to Henry before walking off, out the door of the pizzeria. He opened the door of his car and started it up, pulling out of the parking space and began the drive home.

As he drove along the narrow road, his twisted mind began to scheme. If he was going to hide the bodies of those children in the animatronics, he'd need to tamper with the security cameras; they were all over the building, monitoring every corner. He'd done a good job of keeping out of the camera's line of sight while leading the children into the Safe Room, but there was a camera positioned on the left side of the stage, and being spotted by it was inevitable if he wanted to get close to the animatronics. He'd also been planning on being moved to the day shift to avoid suspicion, as the only time anyone would be able to hide the bodies in such a place was during the night shift. Everything else had been planned out. The bodies would be hidden in the mascots themselves, and who knows how long it would take for them to be found. That boy, Michael, who he'd crushed in the Fredbear suit was already hidden well. He just needed to dispose of the body. He had the alibi of working in the Safe Room at the time, which as far as anyone else knew, was the truth. And as for the Spring Bonnie suit, the guise he'd used to bring the children to him, he had the perfect plan to remove it.

The following day, after doing the dirty work on his previous shift during the night, William returned to the pizzeria. He wasted no time in retreating to the Safe Room, preparing the room to be used. He'd cleaned the floor of its bloodstains, tucked the golden suit containing the body of Michael in a dark corner, where it was still visible, but one would have to inspect it closely to see the signs of death. It had begun to stink slightly, although it was barely noticeable. He wiped away the blood from the yellow fur of the Spring Bonnie suit and opened the inside of the yellow costume to reveal the inner workings of it, and got to work.

William returned to the Dining Area soon after, crowded with children and families, laughing, screaming and enjoying the performance the animals, stuffed with the corpses of children, were putting on onstage. He scanned the area, and found his target. A young man stood in the corner of the room, watching the children play, making sure none of them got hurt or broke the rules.

"Rob!" he called over to the young man, who was crossing his arms and looking very displeased with the situation he was in. Rob turned to the source of the noise, looking puzzled. He was roughly the same size as William, but about ten years younger. He had a round, plump face that was covered in freckles, and small, dark eyes. He strode up to William. "What's up, Will?" William had always hated how casually he addressed him, lacking any respect.

"Why aren't you in costume? Rick's already performing in his suit!" William said in an exasperated voice.

Rob looked even more puzzled by this statement. "Henry said those suits were broken, and not to wear them," he retorted.

"Yes, and I fixed them. Didn't Henry tell you?" Rob opened his mouth, but William didn't wait for him to respond. "Come on, let's get you suited up."

The two walked through the Dining Area, down the corridor leading to the Safe Room. William opened the door and Rob followed inside.

"The suit's on the table, there," William said, gesturing lazily to the golden rabbit costume.

"Great," Rob plucked up a device from beside the suit. It was a long, thin piece of metal. On either end of it were two thin metal cylinders; a hand crank. Rob inserted one end of the crank in the gap of the back of the suit, and turned it to right, tightening the spring locks inside. A faint _click_ could be heard, indicating that the suit's mechanical parts were fastened to the sides of the suit.

"Help me suit up, would ya'?" Rob pulled off the costume's head, leaving a space in the torso where it used to be. It sounded more like an order than a suggestion.

William smiled grimly. "Of course." He opened up the golden torso, wrapping it around Rob's so that his arms slid out of the sockets at either side of the suit. He then slid the golden arms over his, as Rob adjusted his fingers so that they fit into the furry gloves.

The younger man stepped into the legs next, his shoes slotting into the large rabbit feet. Lastly, he placed the smiling mask on his head, carefully. It was the only thing William ever saw him do with caution; it was his safety on the line, and that made it important.

"Rad," Rob's muffled voice came from inside the mask. "Man, I missed wearing this thing. Being a guard during the day is so boring."

"Right. Anyway, I'm going to go see how Rick's doing," William replied dismissively. He turned and left, without so much as a goodbye, and walked off.

"What a grouch..." Rob muttered as he followed suit, walking into the Dining Area. He cleared his throat, putting on the goofy, friendly voice of the character he was portraying. "Hey, kiddos, look who's back! It's Spring Bonnie!" he called, waving his arms in the air to attract attention. He loved being the main focus of the children, bringing them joy and playing with them. Maybe not so much as a guard, but as an entertainer, he felt loved. Along with the attention of the children, who had immediately disregarded the show Freddy and the gang were putting on, Rob also alerted a fellow day guard.

Henry rushed over to the golden mascot, practically shoving the children out of his way. "Robert, is that you? I thought I told you not to use those suits! Get out of it right now, be-before you hurt yourself!"

The rabbit put his hands on his hips. "What are you talking abou-" he stopped suddenly. There was a quiet, almost un-noticeable clicking sound, and then began the popping. They both realised what was happening at once, and they stared at each other in dread. Henry lunged towards Rob, pushing him backwards into the dark hallway.

"Uh, kids, Spring Bonnie needs a break right now, b-but uh, he'll be back soon!" Henry assured the curious gaggle of children, forcing a wide smile on his otherwise distressed face. He turned back towards the bunny suit.

"H-Henry, I can feel them pressing into my skin...! You-you gotta help, man!" Rob choked out. His breathing was uneven and raspy. He was breathing on the spring locks, getting moisture all over them.

"L-look, I will, j-just don't breath so hard. I-it's going to be alright." Henry was trying to assure himself as much as he was Rob. Neither of them believed his promise.

"I-" Rob began, but then it was too late. The popping became a deafening bang, and Rob cried out in pain. He was convulsing, as he fell to the ground, the blood pouring out of the suit like a river. His screaming became a horrible gagging noise, as his own blood filled his lungs, drowning him. Henry backed up against the filthy wall, paralyzed by the sight. At last, after what seemed like an eternity, Rob stopped moving. He stopped screaming. He was still.

Henry doubled over and vomited onto the dark floor, and did not dare look back at Rob's corpse.

William ran in through the entrance to the hallway. "What happened?" he barked. Henry slowly turned to meet him, his eyes closed.

"He...he wore the suit. I-I told him not to, but he..."

William cursed. "I leave the room for one second, and then...this happens. Goddamn it." he shook his head at the motionless rabbit suit.

"W-we have to get someone. Go-go get the boss. He has to know about this."

William nodded, heading towards the boss's office at the bottom of the pizzeria, leaving Henry to mourn the young employee.


	9. Chapter 8: Mechanical Facade

Jack was the last to clamber up onto the elevated stage, with much difficulty. His oversized feet made it awkward for him to step up the small steps that led to the stage.

Once he was in Bonnie's proper position, he began bending over to pick up the red electric guitar that he'd let fall to the ground in his initial surprise to being in a completely new body, surrounded by the talking animals he'd grown a fondness for.

As soon as the instrument was within his reach, he wrapped his blue fingers around the head of the guitar, and its body with the other, as if ready to begin playing at any moment.

"Okay, you're all set," Sammy said, hovering in front of the stage, "Now you just need to stay like for the rest of the day. Just let the animatronics do what they want, don't try to fight it. The grown-ups will be here any minute, so just don't move." Sammy turned to leave, when Lilly spoke up.

"Sammy," she said from the far right side of the stage, with concern in her voice, "What is wrong with Michael? Is he going to be okay?"

Sammy hesitated. "He's fine, don't worry. I'll tell you about it later, but they'll be here any minute, and we've already pushed our luck as it is." And with that, Sammy floated swiftly down the Dining Area, past Pirate Cove, where Samantha hid, concealed behind the purple curtains, and into the dark hall, where the pitch black covered him, and he was gone.

They were all silent. There was nothing to say. They were each wrapped up in their own troubling thoughts; their families, their homes, their pets. They'd lost them all in one day, because of one man, and had been resurrected as ugly, clunky robots, built for the sole purpose of entertaining other children, who had still got their whole lives to look forward to, who still had their childish ignorance, and not a care in the world.

The red, double front doors to the right side of the stage unlocked, grabbing their attention. They could only hear a pair of footsteps, making their way across the large room, and over to the right side of the room, where a switch was flipped, and the rectangular lights attached to the building's ceiling lit up, one by one, erasing that darkness that had previously covered the room.

The slightly fat, bald man who had turned on the lights whistled a chipper tune and strolled down the hallway next to him, where he unlocked another door and went inside.

The violet curtains of Pirate Cove rustled, before a long, red snout poked out, followed by the head of Foxy, its eyepatch flipped up. Samantha glanced curiously around the room, before stepping out of the curtain entirely.

"Sam!" Christopher hissed from the stage, almost shouting across the room, "Get back in there! He's going to see you!"

"Relax, Chris, I know what I'm doing," she said dismissively. She hobbled along the checkered floor, the right foot of her exposed endoskeleton clinking against it.

"Where are you going?" Chris asked, the commanding air in his voice disappearing almost entirely.

"I'm going to see if Michael is okay. They won't notice I'm gone, since Foxy is usually behind the curtains, so stop being such a scaredy cat," Samantha explained as she made her way across the room to the restroom hallway, not stopping until the door that the bald man had entered opened again, and he stepped out.

Samantha froze in the middle of the room. The man frowned as he walked into the room, looking around. "Hello? Who's there? I get it, very funny, moving Foxy to make the big ol' boss freak out. Come out now and I won't fire you!" he called out, his voice echoing around the room. When there was no reply or indication of another presence in the room, he simply shrugged and approached Samantha, who had not moved a muscle since the man's reappearance. He inspected the fox's red body, then glanced up at the three robots onstage, before returning to his room.

"Phew," Samantha sighed as soon as the man disappeared again.

"I told you! I told you he'd see you!" Christopher exclaimed proudly.

"Ugh," was all Sam had to say. She reluctantly turned and trudged back to Pirate Cove, hiding herself behind the curtains once more.

Just as the curtains closed, another two men entered the pizzeria, chatting to each other. The bald man exited the room again, and approached the two men. "Hey, you two, help me-" he stopped, looking over at the spot where Samantha had stood just minutes ago.

"Help you what?" one of the other men questioned when the bald man did not continue his sentence.

"It was-Foxy was standing right there just a second ago, I swear! I heard something, so I came out to check what it was, and he was just standing there!" the bald man gestured to the spot furiously.

"Well...he's not there now," the other man replied lamely, earning a scowl from the bald man.

"Yes, Phillip, I can see that he ain't there now," he growled, causing the man to flinch back. The bald man walked over to Pirate Cove and pulled back the curtain, revealing the small room, with the character it was dedicated to standing at his rightful place on the small stage at the back.

The bald man grunted in annoyance. "If I find out either of you had anything to do with this, you can bet your ass you're fired! And if you see William, tell him to fix that damn fox." The man stormed back to his office, leaving the two mean alone.

The children had all picked up on the name: William. Jack glanced over to Christopher, but did not dare speak a word. Christopher returned the glance, acknowledging the name.

The two men went about their work, setting up the tables and going in and out of every room, making sure everything was prepared for the day.

After hours of remaining motionless, with a new adult entering the pizzeria now and then, the doors finally opened to the public. The first customers to enter were a small family of a mother, a father, and two sons. They took a table and ordered their food, while the young boys ran straight down the hall to the left of the room and into the Prize Corner.

There was a steady flow of children and families entering the pizzeria afterwards. It only took half an hour for the pizzeria to become full of children, bounding around and laughing and playing.

A crowd had formed around the stage by then, tens of children eagerly awaiting the animal band to start playing. And soon they did.

The spot lights turned on, illuminating the robots in vivid colours of blue, green and yellow.

Freddy slowly turned his head to the right, and then to the left, devoid of any input from Christopher. He raised the microphone in his hand to his smiling mouth, and held the other up in an imitation of a wave. "Hello there, boys and girls!" the star of the show said in his deep, yet light-hearted voice. The children down below shouted a simultaneous greeting to him. "Welcome, one and all, to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! Enjoy your day, and remember to eat lots of yummy pizza!" the bear moved his head to and fro aimlessly while speaking.

"Pizza? I love Pizza!" Chica said excitedly, looking at Freddy. She held up the pink cupcake on the platter in her left hand. "Cupcake loves pizza too!"

"You bet I do, Chica!" it said, the place where the pink frosting met the brown wrapping acting as a mouth.

As the cupcake went on to describe why pizza was his favorite food, Bonnie simply nodded and waggled his long ears joyously, his arm strumming up and down on the red guitar. The children were enthralled by the animals, as the parents watched on with smiles on their faces.

The children behind the masks simply looked on as their bodies moved and spoke of their own free will, as if they were passengers in the suits.

The show went on for a while, with Freddy either singing a cheery song accompanied by Bonnie's guitar, or conversing with one of the other band members. Every so often, the show would go on a break, leaving time for the children to visit the Prize Corner or eat their food.

Halfway through a song about bears, a voice called out from the other side of the pizzeria. There, waving its hands in the air, stood the same suit that had led them to their death. The children flocked over to Spring Bonnie, pleased to see him again.

Jack stopped Bonnie's robotic movements. His voice box continued to speak and the music of his guitar continued to play, but he stood still, staring at the golden rabbit. He looked over to Christopher and Lilly, who eyed him, though the animatronics they inhabited kept moving. Subtly, Christopher shook his head and narrowed his eyelids, then Freddy regained his cheerful demeanor.

When he looked back, the rabbit was gone, but the crowd of children remained. Jack weighed his options. He could try to go after the Spring Bonnie suit, most likely containing William, and risk being thrown out for malfunctioning, or he could let Bonnie act normally again and stay undetected.

A scream broke him out of his thoughts. It was too deep to be a child's scream, but sounded as if it belonged to someone young.

That attracted people's attention. Heads turned towards the source of the cry, and Jack relaxed, allowing the blue rabbit to nod his head and tap his foot to the beat of the tune.

Soon afterwards, the same bald man that had caught Samantha earlier stepped up on stage with a microphone. He was drenched in sweat and was swallowing nervously. The animatronics stopped moving, stopped singing and were still. He announced that, unfortunately, the pizzeria would be closing early and unexpectedly, and apologised for the inconvenience.

Parents booed and children cried, but despite their protests, they were all led out of the restaurant until it was bare, save for the few adults in uniform talking rapidly among themselves.

The children were left alone and immobile, until all the adults had left, and the lights flickered off, engulfing them in complete darkness.

* * *

(AN: Thanks for reading the story so far, everyone! Some criticism to help improve my writing would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!)


	10. Chapter 9: Fresh Blood

The friends were left in darkness as the last adult left the premises, turning off the lights that changed the pizzeria from being a desolate wasteland to a place of joy and celebration during the day. They were free to do as they pleased.

Lilly was the one to utter the first words any of them had heard all day.

"I'm going to find out what's wrong with Michael. You all saw him, didn't you? He sounded like he was so...far away. He didn't even move." It was clear that the thoughts she was voicing had occupied her thoughts for the whole day. She moved Chica's clawed feet from their place onstage and walked purposefully down the wooden steps and into the shadowy Dining Area.

"Lilly, wait," Chris called after the figure of the yellow bird moving clumsily between the dinner tables, "We need to get Sammy first. He's the only one that knows what's wrong, remember?"

Lilly stopped. "Where is he, then?" she inquired.

"Probably the Prize Corner. That's where the Puppet always is," Jack suggested, as he unpromptedly stepped off the stage himself and walked down the aisles of tables.

"Jack, hold on! Wait for us!" Chris moved hurriedly, yet cautiously, off the stage, and followed Jack down the back of the room.

Samantha peeked out from behind the purple curtains, using her sharpened hook to hold the drapes apart. "Where are you going?" she asked curiously. Her voice carried an apparent air of eagerness, and she quickly stepped out of the cove, needing no response to motivate her into joining them.

"We're gonna get Sammy to tell us about Michael," Jack said, not caring to slow down as he answered her question.

The four automatons marched through the darkened establishment, down the long hallway, lead by the blue bunny Jack inhabited, and turned right, into the Prize Corner.

It was by far the smallest room in the pizzeria, only being able to hold seven to eight children at a time as opposed to the vast amounts that the Dining Area held. Shelves of plushies and other Fazbear related knick-knacks hung on the walls, displaying their appealing merchandise to children. At the back of the room was a large, blue gift box. From it came the soft, calm melody of the song "My Grandfather's Clock", repeating endlessly.

Jack decisively approached the box and raised a hand, then hammered it down twice, making a hollow knocking noise. "Sammy, it's us. Come out of that box."

"That's kind of rude, Jack..." Lilly murmured, though she made no attempt to stop him.

"I told you, I can't get out of the box until the music stops, and it opens up," Sammy said irritatedly from inside the box, his voice just barely audible over the sound of the music, "You have to get the person who keeps winding it up to stop."

"So where is he then?" Jack asked.

"He's in the room down the hall from here. You have to-"

"Wait, there's someone else here?" Chris interrupted in a panicked voice. "What if they heard us talking? What if they saw us walking around? Oh no, they're going to throw us out for sure..."

"Relax," Sammy snapped. "Look, I didn't have time to tell you this earlier, what with all the distractions and interruptions, but you can speak with each other without being heard by living people around you. You just have to kind of...mean to. That way you don't have to worry about being heard talking. Anyway, it doesn't matter if they did hear or see you. We're going to kill them." Sammy said this as if it were the most obvious thing he could think of.

"We-we can't just _kill_ someone," Chris stammered out.

"Why not? That's what happened to all of us," Sammy replied coolly.

A silence hung over them.

"Maybe it's him," Jack said. "Maybe he's the one in that room. If we kill him, then won't we be able to...to get free, or whatever?" He turned to Sammy, looking only for reassurance from him.

"Yes, that's right," Sammy said, "Look, I know it seems mean and evil, but that's the only way we will be put at rest. He killed all of us-all of _you_ for no reason. Don't you think we deserve revenge?"

"Maybe," Lilly said slowly, thoughtfully, "If it's the only way to get out of here...then we should try it."

"Yeah, come on, let's go!" Samantha cried vigorously, turning to walk out the door without another word, her hooked hand raised.

Chris was still reluctant, although he knew from experience that when his friends agreed on something together, there was no way to change their minds, no matter how horrible the idea was. There was that time when Samantha bet Jack that she could jump from the top of the jungle gym, and ended up spraining her ankle. And then there was the time Jack had the idea to say his dog ate his homework, and ended up getting a note home to his parents and grounded. Or there was the time Michael had tried to eat an entire pizza by himself, and was sick the whole day afterwards. _If they listened to me more,_ he thought to himself frustratedly, _then maybe things would work about better for them._

Silently, he followed them out of the cramped room, and into the hallway. They stood at the end of the hall, next to the glass window of the room, talking to each other. He was about to tell them to quieten down, when he recalled that Sammy had told them how to speak secretly among themselves. He focused on hard on wanting to speak privately to his friends, unsure on what exactly was required of him to accomplish such a goal. "Is it him?" he called over, grabbing their attention.

They simultaneously shook their heads in a robotic manner, downcast.

Christopher feigned disappointment. "Oh, well. We can't kill him, then. Come on, let's try to find another way to get Sammy out of the box."

Just as he was about to turn away, Jack muttered something unintelligible and slowly walked forward, ignoring the others' questioning looks. He stood in front of the open doorway, and stared deep into the scrawny man sitting in the black swivel chair's eyes, searching for something. He had a red telephone held up to his ear, and his mouth was opened, caught in mid sentence. He stared back up at Jack, a look of something between fear and confusion in his blue eyes. They stared at each other for a moment, before his mouth began to move again, speaking into the phone.

"Yeah, Bonnie's just kind of...standing outside the door right now, lookin' at me weird..." he said, his eyes locked onto Jack's. "The others are just behind him, further up the hallway. They're just standing there, too." He quickly stole a glance at a screen in front of him before looking back at the red eyes of the rabbit towering over him.

Jack decided that it was now or never. He bent his legs, like a spring ready to recoil, and lunged towards the man, grabbing him by the shoulders and using his weight to push him to the ground. The man screamed, and in a desperate effort to escape the rabbit, kicked against his bulky torso, propelling him backwards. He broke free of Jack's grip, and fell to the floor. He began crawling frantically backwards, his face frozen in terror and bewilderment. He clenched his teeth and went to stand up, but Jack quickly stepped forward, stepping on the man's left foot, crushing his toes. The man screamed, a cry of anguish, and dropped limply to the floor.

" _Jack!"_ Lilly's voice shouted from behind him, but he did not turn to face her. He was far too focused on the sobbing man beneath his feet.

"What are you _doing?_ That's not him!" Lilly continued, growing increasingly infuriated with his unresponsiveness.

Jack bent over the man's groaning figure and held him by his thin and fragile throat, pulling him off the ground. His grip tightened, almost effortlessly crushing it. He let go of the man, who fell to the floor.

Jack finally turned to face his friends, something resembling fear or contempt in their plastic eyes.

"What did you do? He wasn't even him, and you-you just..." Christopher's eyes darted between the lifeless body of the innocent man, and Jack, standing over it, his mouth hanging open, his ears drooping in front of his face.

"Jack, what's wrong with your eyes? They're all...black," Samantha said softly, taking her eyes off the man.

Bonnie's usually bright, white eyes with red irises were replaced with soulless, black voids, a tiny pinprick of light in their centre.

Jack closed his eyes, partially because he wanted to try to return his eyes to their former state, and partially to avoid looking his friends in the eyes. "Well...he's dead," he sighed, opening his eyes again.

"Why did you kill him?! He didn't do anything to us!" Lilly cried.

"I don't know. I was just...angry. We had to get rid of him somehow, so I just...killed him," Jack said weakly.

As he finished his sentence, the a song began to play loudly, the simple tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel", echoing through the building.

"You did it!" Sammy's voice came from down the hall, soon followed by his slender body. He floated to them, the smile on his mask truly reflecting his emotions for once. "I never get to get out of that thing at night! Last night was the first time in ages."

He stopped once he saw them looking at strangely. "What's wrong?"

"Jack killed the guy in the room," Christopher said quickly, speaking as if Jack were a misbehaving schoolboy, and Sammy the teacher.

"Oh," Sammy said. "Well, I'm out now. Now I can tell you about Michael, come on."

"Wait, hold on," Chris said, sounding offended, "You're just going to ignore this? He killed someone who wasn't William Afton for no reason!" Jack turned his gaze to the floor and shifted uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry, alright? I didn't mean to, I just meant to stop him from winding up the box, but I was angry and I went too far. I'm sorry."

"Don't be, he deserved it," Sammy said, "He works with them, doesn't he? The people who hired William Afton in the first place. The people who trusted him, let him near children. Let him use those suits. Let him murder you. They're going to try to cover it up, do you know? Cover all your deaths up, like it never happened. That's the way all adults are, all of them. They try to forget about the problems in their lives, just cover it up and forget about it, so they can go on with their happy little lives." Sammy's voice increased in volume, becoming almost a shout, before beginning to quieten down again.

Sammy shook his head slightly, attempting to calm himself down. He exhaled. "Come on, let's go see Michael."

The four children moved silently through the murky pizzeria. Sammy's words echoed in their minds, an insight to the enigmatic boy's thoughts and motives.

They reached the doorway to the Safe Room quicker than they'd expected to, lost in their own thoughts. Chris opened the door for the others and stepped inside the dark, musty room.

"What's that?" Samantha asked immediately upon seeing the room.

On the table lay the Spring Bonnie suit, covered in blood in the same way the Fredbear suit Michael had been put into was. The crooked smile hung open slightly, revealing the gaping mouth of a human inside.

"Looks like someone suffered the same fate poor Michael has," Sammy said.

"I saw it," Michael said suddenly, startling them, "I saw it happen. _He_ came in here, with another man. He put him in the costume. Then...they walked out of the room. I heard screaming, and then the carried it back in here, with blood all over it." His voice was monotonous and distant.

"Michael, are you okay? Can't you move?" Lilly questioned hurriedly.

"No," was the reply, a few seconds later.

"Sammy, tell us what's wrong with him, please," Chris said, looking Sammy straight in the eye.

Sammy sighed. "I will. I haven't been looking forward to admitting it, but it's my fault he's like this. Let me explain."

"You have to understand, I've never done this before. Giving life, I mean. So, when I found your bodies in the animatronics, I went to see if there was anything in Fredbear and Spring Bonnie. They weren't on their stage. So, I came to this room, to see if they were here. When I looked inside, I found Michael's body, in the Fredbear suit. That's when I decided to try to save you all, give you all life. And I...started with Michael." He gestured over to the Fredbear suit slumped over in the corner.

"I tried to bond his soul with the animatronic, giving him control over it. That's what I tried to do. I brought his soul back, but I...didn't connect it with the suit properly, let's say. His soul is still here, but it's only half bonded with the suit. He can use it as a vessel, but he can't move it like you all can. I got it right the second time, when I brought you back, Christopher, and the third, and fourth, and fifth. But not the first time. I'm sorry." Sammy finished, guilt evident in his voice.

"So he's just going to be stuck here, not able to do anything?" Lilly asked desperately.

Sammy nodded solemnly.

"It's alright. I'm fine," Michael assured his sister.

Lilly didn't reply. Her expression became one of grievance, as much as her mechanical face would allow.

"Don't be sad, Lilly," Michael said in an effort to console his sister, though his voice sounded unsure.

"I'm not. At least you're here with us. That's good enough for me," Lilly said.

"Um," Sammy said timidly, "Sorry for interrupting, but I just remembered, we need to hide the guy Jack killed."

"Sorry," Jack muttered again, staring at the ground.

"It's alright, but we need to hide him. If there's someone lying on the ground when the others come in, they're going to suspect something. Where do we put it, though?" Sammy tilted his head thoughtfully.

"What about...in one of the animals? Like he did with us?" Samantha suggested after a moment.

Sammy snapped to attention. "That's a great idea! No one will check in the spare suits backstage! We could hide him in there, and then no one will find him!"

"Well, you know, I just thought it was a good idea," Samantha said airily, examining her hook.

"I could have thought of that," Chris grumbled with covetous, folding his arms.

"No time to argue," Sammy said quickly, before Samantha could retort.

He floated briskly out of the room with Christopher, Jack and Samantha in his wake. Lilly lingered in the Safe Room with Michael.

"Are you sure you can't move? At all?" she inquired.

"Yeah," Michael replied, "I've been trying all day. I can only move my eyes." The white pinpricks in the suit's dark eye sockets darted around in demonstration.

"Do you want me to carry you?" Lilly offered generously, extending a hand.

"No," Michael said thoughtfully, "Pick up my head."

"W-what?"

"Pick up my head from the rest of me and carry it around with you. Then I can see what's going on," Michael elucidated.

"Won't that hurt?" Lilly questioned.

"I can't feel anything. Can you?"

Lilly raised a yellow hand and knocked it against her torso twice for good measure. There was a thud indicating connection, but Lilly felt nothing.

"No," Lilly said. She hesitated for a moment. "All right. If that's what you want, I'll try it."

She bent down and held the Fredbear suit's head in her hands, making sure she had a good grip on it, then pulled, removing the head from the body with ease.

"Are you alright?" Lilly asked, somewhat fearing that there would be no answer.

"Yeah, I'm fine," came the reply. Lilly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, let's go find the others." The chicken exited the Safe Room, the golden head in hand, and was met with the other children dragging the lifeless body of the man Jack had murdered along the checkered floor. Sammy, too frail to move such a weight, was floating next to them, encouraging them on.

"Who's that?" Michael asked apprehensively.

"Oh, that...that's someone Jack killed. By accident," Lilly said, watching her friends dragging the body along the cold ground, hiding the terrible sin that had been committed by her friend.

"Oh..."

There was a silence between them as Lilly approached them.

They were all almost too caught up in their work to notice her observing them. Jack was the first to catch sight of her.

"Did you take off Michael's head?" Jack squinted at the mask of the yellow head. The others looked up at Lilly upon hearing Jack's words.

"I'm alright, Jack, it doesn't hurt," Michael reassured him.

"Can you-" Chris began to say.

"Stop staring at Michael and help me move this, would you?" Samantha cut in angrily.

Chris eyed her, but complied. They dragged the body into the Backstage Area, three of them heaving the corpse, three of them spectating. It was a small room to the right of the show stage, and rested him on the wooden table. Similar to the Safe Room, the shelves were lined with spare parts for animatronics, though these were for the FazBand and Foxy.

"So...how do we do this? Do we just shove him into the thing?" Jack asked frankly. In response, Sammy floated over to a shelf and picked up an empty, smiling mask of Freddy Fazbear.

"We start with the mask, I think. That's the best way to do it."

Sammy brought the head over to the man's body, and carefully placed it over his head, concealing the permanent expression of terror on his face.


	11. Chapter 10: Day Off

The alarm clock on William's bedside table beeped loudly and continuously, trying to serve its one and only purpose of awaking William on-time. He had, as usual, already woken up by the time it went off. He always had it set for 7:00 AM, though he always woke up before it. He had never been a heavy sleeper, or one for lazy mornings. His alarm clock was always set for early in the morning, and he always arose from his bed even earlier. He was in the middle of brushing his teeth in the en-suite bathroom when the alarm began emitting its call vociferously, though he didn't bother to leave his bathroom to turn it off. He had to make sure he looked presentable to the world around him.

After spitting out the watery toothpaste, he cleaned his narrow face, giving it an almost welcoming shine that contrasted with his sharp features.

He wetted his dark hair and combed it back, smoothing out the strands of hair that stuck out independently.

After finishing his morning ritual, he silenced the ratchet of the alarm and left, eager to resume work on his project. He crept quietly and smoothly down the stairs, careful not to wake his three children, sleeping soundly in their rooms, and left the house through the back door. He quickened his pace as he walked through the grass, wet with dew. He pulled from his pocket a small, golden key as he neared the flight of steps descending to the basement reserved only for his work. He inserted the key into the keyhole of the door, with its white paint peeling off. He twisted it and pushed it open, then shut the door, enclosing himself in the dark room. The only source of light came from the grimy window of the door, but he was familiarised with the room enough to know where the light switch was on the wall. He flicked it on, lighting up the musty room.

It was large for a basement, though the various mechanical parts, papers, and photographs that littered made it seem cramped. Spiderwebs hung from the corners of the room, their arachnid inhabitants lying in rest in them, and there was a lack of fresh air.

William walked over to the table where parts of his current project sat. There was a thin, mechanical, five-fingered hand, a round head separated into two parts to imitate a jaw, and two round ears protruding from either side. It had rounded cheeks, and a single purple eye in its socket. The other eye was lying on the table next to the head, staring perpetually at nothing. There were a few other small parts on the table, lying in wait to be used in the creation of the robot.

He sat in the chair pulled up to the table, and just as he was about to continue where he left off the previous day, the phone rang from across the room. He sighed and rose from his seat, walking over to pick up the receiver.

"Uh, hello? Hello, hello? Will?" Henry's voice came from the phone.

"Yes, it's me, Henry. What is it?" William asked, barely managing to hide his frustration with being interrupted.

"Oh, uh, I was just calling to make sure you know that, uh, the pizzeria's closed today, after...well, you know..." Henry cleared his throat.

"Yeah, I'd guessed."

"Oh, well, uh, we'll be back open tomorrow, o-or the day after. Uh, remember those kids I told you about? That those parents couldn't find? The-they still haven't shown up, either. I-it's kind of a stressful time for us right now, b-but rest assured, we have everything under control." His voice was sprinkled with uncertainty.

"Alright. I'll talk to you later, Henry."

"Yeah, see ya'."

William hung up, and breathed a sigh of relief. He wasted no time in returning to the table and tinkering with the parts in front of him, putting things together, only to take them apart again when they didn't work. This would be the first animatronic he made, and he wanted it to be as good as he could make it. Working with the animatronics from Freddy's had given him some insight on how they worked; their movements, their A.I, what made them tick. His animatronics would be polished, refined, not like those clunky, ugly, buggy things that passed for child-friendly mascots. His would be state-of-the-art.

A knock came from the door behind him. "Come in," he called, not stopping his work.

The door creaked open slowly, until a slight crack let in the sun's rays. The face of a young boy, four years old, peeked in through it.

"Dad, Mike took Fredbear again, and he won't give him back!" the boy squeaked out.

William groaned and rolled his eyes. "Tell him I said to give it back or he's grounded."

The boy smiled slightly. "Thanks, Dad." He gently closed the door again, leaving William in solitude to work on his machines.


	12. Chapter 11: Substitute Suits

Freddy's reopened two days after Rob's abrupt and tragic death. His body was removed from the suit it had been crushed in, and disposed of, leaving only the permanent marks that scarred the employees' memories.

On his first day back, William was met by a stumpy, balding man that he knew as Andrew Russo, the owner of the pizzeria, almost immediately upon his entrance. His pudgy face lit up as he saw the lean man walk through the door.

"Ah, William! You're just the guy I was looking for," he said in a gruff voice, "Come here, I got to show you the new suits we got."

Russo walked surprisingly quickly for a man of his stature, speeding off through the Dining Area once again filled to the brim with families, eating pizza and watching the show, not allowing William to get a word in. He didn't stop until he reached the room that the two golden animatronics performed in, separate from the other four. But instead of the golden rabbit and bear William had grown accustomed to seeing standing together, on the small, circular stage were a brown rabbit with a golden bowtie, and a golden bear with vivid purple accessories, and a large mouth split in two to allow more movement. They were moving slowly and robotically, indicating that they weren't being controlled by humans from the inside, not that it mattered to the children they entertained.

Although they looked similar to the Fredbear and Spring Bonnie, there was a clear difference. The rabbit's costume was more angular, and its snout was shorter, making its face seem too human to represent a rabbit, but the tall ears on its head proved it. The bear was slightly taller than Fredbear, and its dull, grey eyes made it seem lifeless. The wide mouth with its blocky teeth was its most unsettling feature, it was as if its mouth had been stretched and never returned to its normal state.

"These guys are gonna be taking Fredbear and Spring Bonnie's places until they're fixed," Russo explained to William, who'd already guessed as much, "After that incident, I'd guess you still got a lot of work to do on 'em. Poor kid...such a terrible way to go, you know?" The plump man tutted and shook his head solemnly, then returned to the topic at hand, turning towards William.

"So, we need those two fixed up as soon as you can. These things'll get the job done, but they ain't as good as the old ones. And don't let anyone use them until you're sure they're ready. God knows why Rob decided to get in the damn thing when it was still being worked on..." Russo crossed his arms, and he his brow furrowed, but there was a trace of sorrow in his eyes.

"I've got it, boss," William spoke for the first time since entering the restaurant. Russo was known to have a way of making people keep quiet until he deemed it necessary for them to speak. He waited for nobody; it was his way, or the high way.

Russo smiled, his mouth barely visible beneath his bristly mustache. "Great. The suits are in the Safe Room, try get some work done on 'em." Russo began to walk to his office, when he stopped suddenly. "Oh, by the way," he said, "You know that kid who took the night shift for you? Jake? Well, he's gone missing. He didn't came to work last night, I had to get someone else to fill in his position. No call, he didn't say he was sick or nothing. The camera footage from the last two night is all...scrambled up, too, we can't see what happened on them. Just keep an eye out if you hear anything from him, yeah?"

"I haven't seen him around, but I'll let you know," William offered.

Russo just nodded and left the room, leaving William to watch the new spring-lock animatronics. He hadn't though it possible, but they were even worse and more clunky and ugly than their counterparts, or any of the other animatronics the pizzeria proudly displayed. The bear's mouth moved simply up and down, over and over, his head turning from side to side, and a microphone held in his large hand. The rabbit waved and nodded, not contributing much to the show. Their words were almost inaudible over the shouts and laughter from the children watching them. William looked on in contempt. They were hideous, yet they attracted such love and affection from the crowd they pleased.

 _Children will love anything as long as it entertains them somewhat,_ he mused.

He wondered mildly what the children's reactions would be if they knew the things that they held with such high regard had killed a man, crushed him to a pulp, and held the bodies of children just like them. Then, shaking himself from his thoughts, he left the room and headed to the Safe Room to begin his work.


	13. Chapter 12: Monotony

Two days went by before the pizzeria opened again. Two long, uneventful days, for the children. Although there were no customers to entertain there were still employees moving around the place, preventing them from doing what they pleased. They remained silent for most of the day; there was nothing that needed to be said that they all didn't know already. They were trapped in strange new bodies, unable to escape to the world outside or interact with the living. Every now and then Jack would attempt to lighten the mood with a sarcastic comment or joke, but it just made the tension rise all the more when it did not receive a reaction. "Look at that guy over there," he snickered to them, referring to a man with unusually large ears, "He looks like Dumbo! Do you think he can fly with them?" Christopher grunted in acknowledgement, but Lilly remained silent.

The nights were almost as humdrum. There was no night guard on the first night, so the children simply explored their surroundings and made meaningless conversation with each other. They were taken off guard when the stubby bald man came in the next day just as they were returning to their stage. Christopher had been cautious and clambered to the stage shortly before he arrived, as did Sammy to the music box, but Jack was caught in the middle of the room with Samantha, and Lilly was found in the Safe Room while talking to Michael. Christopher's smugness was almost visible on the animatronic's expressionless face.

"Fucking hell, I swear to God. The last thing we need is these things breaking down now," he grumbled to himself as he kicked Samantha's leg. She snapped her head around to face him, and he swiftly walked down the room to his office, shutting the door after him.

"Ha! Did you see his face? He was so scared!" Samantha howled.

"You won't be laughing when they throw you out," Christopher said complacently.

"Come on, Chris, they're not going to throw any of us out," Jack said. "They already saw me acting weirdly during the show, and that guy saw Sam standing in the middle of the floor when he came in. If they were gonna throw us out for acting weird they would've already done it."

"But...Sammy said they'd throw us out if they saw us acting strange," Christopher insisted.

"Yeah, but he could have been lying. We don't even know anything about him. Remember when I-I killed that guy, and he got all mad and said all grown-ups are bad and they should die? That wasn't normal." Jack began making his way to the stage, as if his point had been proven, and he was not interested in continuing the discussion. Christopher glared at him for a moment, but didn't retort. Lilly came out from the Safe Room soon afterwards, and once the animatroncs were all in their positions on-stage, the second day of closure commenced.

It went the same way the previous day had gone. There were a few people hauling costumes around the pizzeria this time, what looked to be a new Fredbear and Spring Bonnie, though that was hardly something worth discussing. It was only when night fell that their something caught their attention. It was a new night guard, alone in the restaurant with them.

"Great," Christopher muttered, "Now we'll have to stand here all night again so that he doesn't see us moving. Unless you want to kill someone else, Jack?"

"Shut up," Jack replied roughly, not looking at Christopher. "I told you, it doesn't matter if they see us moving, they're not going to just throw us out." He let the red guitar in his hands fall to the ground and stepped off the stage.

"Where do you think you're going?" Christopher called after him.

"Wherever I want," the other boy replied coolly.

"You can't just-"

Lilly sighed loudly and stepped down from the stage as well. "Come on Chris, it won't hurt just to move around for one night, will it? Jack has a point, they won't just throw us out if they think we don't work properly, they'll try to fix us first."

Christopher humphed, but stepped down from the stage reluctantly. "There, happy?"

Lilly rolled her plastic eyes. "Come on, let's go see Michael. He isn't doing so well."

"Fine," was Christopher's reply. The two of them headed over to the Safe Room.

On the other side of the building, Jack was walking purposefully down the west hall. He could hear the whirring of the fan from inside the office at the end of the hallway, and the light illuminating it, but that was not his destination. Instead, he turned right into the room that held the music box, inside of which Sammy was no doubt impatiently waiting to be free from it.

"Sammy, it's me, Jack," Jack knocked on top of the blue box.

"Oh, good. Have you stopped the night guard from winding the box?" Sammy asked.

"No, and I'm not going to either. Not until you answer a couple of questions."

Sammy sighed. "Look, I don't like talking about what happened before all this. I don't think I had a very good life. Maybe later I will tell you about it, but not now."

"But why did you get so mad about grown-ups the other night? Why were you glad that guy died?" Jack pressed on.

"Me?" Sammy said, almost incredulously. "You were the one that killed him, not me."

"Hey, I didn't mean to! It was an accident!" Jack yelled, balling his fists. There was no reply from withing the music box. "Fine then, have fun being stuck in a dumb box." He stormed off before his temper could get the better of him again, and he did something he would regret.

A bright light illuminating the walls and floor in front of him made Jack spin around. The light was so brilliant that it blinded him, and he instinctively raised a great, blue hand to shield his eyes from it. He could now see the form of a man, standing paralysed at the end of the hallway. Jack did not like being gawked at. "What do you want?" he growled. The man did not move. Either he couldn't hear him, or he was not phased by an animatronic rabbit speaking to him.

Jack lowered his arm and began walking slowly towards the man. If that didn't scare him off then nothing would. Sure enough, the guard bolted into the office, and Jack was left alone again. He retreated to the Dining Area, where Samantha greeted him from Pirate Cove.

"Where were you?" she inquired.

"Talking to Sammy, but then that guy in the room down there started annoying me, so I scared him off," Jack replied nonchalantly.

Samantha giggled. "That sounds funny. I'm gonna go down there and try spooking him a little bit, like that other guy who kicked me." Without another word, she had left the cove and was moving down the hallway.

Jack resumed his wanderings around the pizzeria, blowing off steam. He had seen all the walls and posters before, but they seemed so much different now that they were his permanent surroundings. Realising that his tour was only making him more frustrated, he returned to the stage, where he remained until the doors opened again, and Freddy's was officially back in business.


	14. Chapter 13: Fowl Odour

It seemed like mere seconds before the families began flooding into the pizzeria, once more bringing cheer and delight to its halls. The seats were quickly filled, and the tables were crowded with plates of steaming hot pizza straight from the oven. The brief closure of the restaurant seemed to have made them all the more eager to return to the place. It wasn't long before the lights dimmed, and with them, the sounds of the children's voices; a clear sign of something awe-inducing. The stage light overhead lit up, illuminating the stage in vivid shades of purple, yellow and green.

Freddy was the first to speak, as usual. "Hello there, boys and girls!" The children bellowed a greeting in unison. "Welcome, one and all, to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! Enjoy your day, and remember to eat lots of yummy pizza!"

The show went largely the same as it had on the day the pizzeria closed. The band sang songs, talked about pizza and kept the boys and girls wholly entranced through it all.

Behind the furry masks of the robots, the children were not quite as enthralled. They could do nothing but let the animatronics do as they were programmed. It was at least a step-up from idling around all day, simply passing time until the night came, yet the show was not nearly as good when from their position.

It went on unremarkably for the next few hours, although Christopher did notice one woman staring at him quite oddly during the show, and after what seemed like an eternity, the show ended, and the pizzeria was closed to the public again.

Shortly after the last child had begrudgingly left the premises, a man in the signature uniform of the employees who worked at Freddy's came up close to the Show Stage. His blue cap covered most of his forehead, and his face was rugged, though he seemed to only be about 20 years old. He stared intently into the face of the animatronics one by one, his nose scrunched up slightly, and paused and squinted when he came to Chica.

"Going in for a kiss with Chica?" a co-worker laughed from behind him, stacking up empty plates that now held only crumbs.

"Shut up, man. Some lady said she saw some stuff around the animatronics' faces, so I'm just checking 'em out."

The other man furrowed his brow and rested the stack of plates on a nearby table. "Lemme see." He stepped up next to the man and almost instantly turned his face away.

"Oh, shit, what's that smell?" He coughed, pinching the bridge of his nose dramatically.

"I don't know," the first man replied quietly.

Christopher glanced over to Lilly, then Jack, who seemed just as confused.

"What is that...? Do you see that-that brown stuff around her eyes? Look," the first man said pointing with his left index finger to the outside of the mask's eye sockets.

The second man crossed his arms and kept his distance, standing just behind the first. "Oil? Come one, Dan, who cares? Let William take care of this, he's the one who deals with this kind of stuff."

The first man looked back at him with a questioning glare. "Really? Oil? Look at it, that's not oil."

It was then that things fit together in Christopher's mind. He glanced over to Jack again to get his attention. "Didn't Sammy say that that man hid us inside these? I mean, you know..."

Jack's eyelids raised ever so slightly, but he didn't reply.

"It's flaky," the man said, touching the brown substance around the eye sockets.

"Why don't you just take the whole head off?" the second man said sarcastically.

"Right," the first man replied. He wrapped his long fingers around Lilly's head, and pulled it off with a sharp tug, revealing the metal endoskeleton underneath, similar to the one Christopher had shown when he lifted his head off.

"Oh, shit, that smell..." the second man said, making a show of turning away and covering his nose.

The first man did not reply immediately. He swallowed and raised and rubbed his face. "Frank," he choked out.

The second man detected the abrupt change in his friend's tone. "What, what is it, what's wrong?" He stepped up next to the first man and looked into the headless suit. The head of a young girl protruded from the inside of the suit, just behind the endoskeleton. Her face was cut and sliced open, her mouth opened in a silent scream. Her nose was crushed and disfigured, and her eyes were bloodshot, almost completely red. "Oh fuck..."

Christopher quickly averted his gaze, purposefully closing his eyes, yet the image of his friend's bloody face seemed to be painted on the inside of his eyelids. It took all his will not to drop to his knees and scream.

The men had taken a step back from the animatronic now. One of them had his face buried in his hands, and the other held a hand to his forehead. It was a while before either of them even shifted from their positions.

"Blood. That's what they had on them, blood," the first man said. His face was still buried in his hands, and his voice came out pained and muffled. "That-that's where those kids went. Remember? The-the kids that went missing a couple days ago?"

The other man simply swallowed and exhaled. "What do we do?"

The first man ran his hands along the top of his head, down his neck, then rested them behind his head. "We have to tell the boss. Come on, I...I don't want to look at this any more than I have to." The two men silently walked away, towards the office in the west corridor.

"I want to go home," Lilly whimpered, turning to her friends. "I don't like this anymore, I just want to go home now." She seemed on the verge of tears, if it weren't for the robotic body she possessed.

"We all want to go home, Lilly." Christopher turned to her, but his eyes did not meet hers in fear of seeing the disfigured face of his friend. "We'll get to go once we find that man, William Afton, and we will soon, I promise."

"We still won't get to see our families again..." Jack said dishearteningly.

"I miss my mom and dad," Lilly said. "They must be so sad and...lonely without me and Michael..."

Chris struggled to get the thought of his parents crying over his death, their son, who had brought them such joy in life, out of his mind before it drove him insane. He was brought to attention by the door of the office slamming, and the bald man striding across the floor, with the two employees following closely behind him. It was only when he reached the stage that he seemed to notice that something was wrong. The employees had stopped at the front row of party tables, as if an invisible wall were blocking them from continuing.

"Jesus Christ..." the bald man said. His eyes were as wide as dinner plates. "Who would do something like this...?" He rubbed his eyes with one hand, and held the other on his hip. "Did you check the others?"

"N-no, sir," one of the men behind him squeaked.

"Alright. I'll...get somebody to check 'em out later. You two can go home for now. Get some rest," the bald man breathed heavily.

"Thanks, sir," came the simultaneous response, as the two men walked to the exit, moving quickly.

The bald man took one more look at the animatronics before shaking his head and trudging back to his office.


	15. Chapter 14: Scared

"What do you think they'll do?" Christopher asked the others as they made their way down to the back of the restaurant. Night had fallen shortly after the discovery of the children's bodies having been hid inside the animatronic costumes, which meant that they were free to roam once more. They collectively decided that it would be best to inform Sammy about the incident, and they were now making their way to him.

"Why are you always so scared of everything?" Samantha questioned in a teasing voice. ""Oh no, what happens if they see us moving? Oh no, what happens if they find us not standing on the stage? Oh no, what happens if they find out we're in the animals?"" she said, imitating his worried tone. "You'd think after, you know, being a ghost and all, you wouldn't be such a wimp."

Christopher grumbled something and stormed off past the group, distancing himself from them as he went to the Prize Corner.

"That wasn't nice, Sam," Lilly said quietly, "Everyone's scared by everything that's happening now, you shouldn't make fun of Chris for that. Aren't you scared by all of this?"

"Scared?" Samantha scoffed "Of course I'm not scared, there's nothing to be scared of. Just because all of you are scaredy-cats doesn't mean I am."

Lilly traded a dubious look with Jack but didn't question Samantha any further. They moved down the hall quietly, the only sound being the heavy thud of their feet as they came down on the checkered floor, and soon they arrived at the Prize Corner.

Christopher was already standing there slumped forward slightly, as his height , with his back turned to the entrance of the cramped room. He turned his head nonchalantly when the three entered but made did not greet them.

"Is that them?" Sammy's voice came from inside the music box.

"Yeah, it's us," Jack replied.

"Oh, good, so you're all here," Sammy said contentedly, "So, what's wrong?"

Christopher began explaining at once. "Remember how you said that man hid us-I mean, our bodies-inside here?" he said hurriedly, gesturing to his fuzzy, brown body. "Well, there were these two people, and then they came up to us, and then they took Lilly's head off, and then they...saw..."

"Oh," Sammy said. It was a single word, yet it carried the meaning of everything he needed to say.

"What's going to happen?" Christopher asked, regaining his fretful demeanor.

"Well, it isn't going to be good, anyway. When they found out I died, Fredbear's closed down and it was a few years before this place opened up. And now there's five people that have been killed by _him_ , and there's that night guard that Jack killed as well, and that man that died inside Spring Bonnie."

"Sorry," Jack apologised again.

"What are we going to do?" Lilly inquired with a hint of concern in her voice. "If Freddy's closes, then won't we be stuck here forever?"

"Alright, calm down everyone," Sammy said, "There's a good side to this as well. If they find your bodies, they might be able to figure out that it was William Afton that killed us. Then they'll lock him in jail and throw away the key, and we'll be able to move on!"

A murmur of agreement spread throughout the group.

"And," Sammy continued with excitement, "If they find Michael inside Fredbear, they'll know it has to be him! He's the only one who goes near those two suits!"

Lilly suddenly raised her head as if she'd remembered something important. "Actually, I should go and tell Michael about this. He'd want to know," she said.

"You should bring him out into the open, that way we know they'll find him when they come in," Sammy said with growing furor. "There's no way that he'll get out of this one!"

His enthusiasm seemed to be contagious, as the four children were now eager to execute their plan as they marched out of the room, through the Dining Area, and into the Safe Room. They filed into the Safe Room clumsily, knocking over some of the spare parts for the spring-lock suits with little consideration.

"Oh, hi, everyone," Michael greeted them in a distant voice. "What are you all doing here? Is something wrong?"

"Michael, do you know how our real selves are hidden inside these?" Lilly asked gently.

"Yes," Michael responded glumly. "I still remember when that man put me into this suit, and then he did something, and it hurt...so much..."

Lilly was taken aback by Michael's recount. "Oh, Michael, I'm sorry for bringing it up, of course you remember," she scolded herself. "But, um, what I was going to say was that-"

She was cut off by a man yielding a flashlight slowly opening the creaky door to the Safe Room. Lilly was about to turn around, before she remembered that it was better not to let other people see them moving. Samantha, however, was not as considerate, and jerked her head back to face the man, her mouth hanging open lazily.

The man seemed more focused on the mess that the four had made in their rush to inform Michael of the plan. "Ah, crap," he groaned, rubbing the pack of his head as he moved the flashlight around the room, surveying the damage. "He's gonna kill me for this..."

His attention then shifted to the four animatronics standing around in the room idly. Without a word, he hastily backed out of the room and shut the door behind him.

"How are we going to do anything when he's around, poking his nose into everything?" Samantha said, eyeing the door.

"Do what? What are we doing?" Michael questioned impatiently.

Lilly glared at Samantha briefly before turning back to Michael. "Well, Michael, they found out that that man hid us inside these costumes, but they don't know it was him yet. So, um, what we were going to do is show them that he killed us and hid us here. What we were going to do is move you out of here so that they'll find you easier and know that it was him that killed us. Then, they'll throw him in jail and we'll get to go."

Michael thought for a moment, the white pinpricks in the suits dark sockets looking around thoughtfully. "I guess, if that will get him put into jail. I can't really move, though, so you're kind of going to have to carry me."

"Okay. I'll hold his arms, someone else get his legs," Jack ordered, moving over to the golden suit.

"I'll get his legs," Christopher offered. As Jack hooked his arms around Michael's, Christopher wrapped his around his legs, and they slowly lifted him off the ground.

As they entered the Dining Area, they became aware of another presence: the man who had interrupted the group by bursting in through the Safe Room door. He simply stared, transfixed by the bear and rabbit animatronics carrying the golden costume.

They all stood still, waiting for the man to go away so they could continue with their plan. It was then that Samantha raised her hooked hand, lowered herself, and broke into a sprint, gnashing her teeth viscously as she ran. The man went pale and turned to run the other way, a scream escaping from his lips.

"Sam!" Lilly called after her, to no avail. She had chased the man down the corridor on the right side of the restaurant and disappeared around the corner. Lilly turned to Jack and Christopher, who were still holding Michael. "Carry him out further into the room and wait here, I'm going to get Sam."

They nodded in compliance, and continued to heave the Fredbear suit through the room. Lilly walked quickly through the hallway, stopping when she saw Samantha standing over the cowering form of the man, lying on the ground. Blood dripped from her metal hook. "Sam, what did you do?!"

Samantha turned to her. "Oh, don't get all angry, I only scratched him a bit." She gestured lazily to the man's back, where there was a large gash, visible through his torn shirt.

"Come on, leave him alone. He won't be bothering us anymore for now," Lilly implored.

Samantha kicked the man in the side, causing him in cry out in either fear or pain, the two couldn't tell, and begrudgingly stalked off after Lilly.

They entered the Dining Room, finding that Christopher and Jack were already in their position on-stage, chatting to each other about something. Michael was lying on the floor just a few feet away, his limbs sprawled out over the floor. Samantha roughly pulled open the purple curtains of Pirate Cove and slunk away, leaving Lilly on her own.

"Good night, Michael," she said to him, just quietly enough for him to hear.

"Good night, Lilly," he returned.

She carefully stepped around the suit and walked up the creaking stairs to the Show Stage, where she picked up the pink cupcake she'd left lying on the floor and waited along with the others for day to come, and for William Afton to be unmasked.

* * *

(Author's Note: Sorry for the delay in between chapters, everyone. Things are a bit hectic for me right now. Anyway, hopefully the chapters will be coming out more frequently soon. I'm also working on making a new cover for the story, so that will be coming along soon as well. Thanks for reading!)


	16. Chapter 15: Jester

It was only when William neared the pizzeria that he realised that there was no clamor from inside. There were no audible voices at all, actually. No droning voice of the animals singing on-stage, no chatter between parents as their children watched the show. Freddy's was undeniably much more lifeless than usual.

William peered in through one of the grimy windows; while the windows at Freddy's were cleaned regularly, little effort or care was put into the task. His sharp eyes scanned the Dining Area: the place was sparse except for a few other employees. Was the place closed? He hadn't been informed of such.

Intrigued, William attempted to open the red double doors. Locked. That confirmed his suspicions: the pizzeria was closed again. They'd just returned from a two-day break following Rob's death, what reason could they have for closing down so soon?

William rapped on the door lightly, but just loud enough for the employees inside to hear. It was only a few seconds before the door was opened by none other than Henry.

His face twisted from a concerned frown to a look of surprise and consternation. "William? W-what are you doing here? Didn't you get the memo?"

William arched a brow. "I'm afraid not, Henry. What's going on? Why are we closed again?"

Henry removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes, groaning, before looking back up to meet William. He inhaled before continuing. "Remember about those kids I told you about That, uh, that went missing? Yeah, well...they, uh...a couple of employees said that they saw some kind of...substances around the animatronics' masks, and they went to check out what they were..."

William knew exactly where this was headed, but he retained his composure. He had planned for this, after all, played out the scenario in his head. He just hadn't expected them to be discovered so soon.

"And, um, well...they found those children, stuffed inside the suits. Some...sick bastard killed them and hid them inside the animatronics. We even found one in Fredbear. He was just lying out on the floor when we came in today. God, it's..." Henry shook his head.

"Jesus, that's...disgusting." William wrinkled his nose, a gesture foreign to his face.

"Y-yeah, it's awful. That's not even the end of it...do you know that guy, Jake? He was kinda young, he took your position on the night shift after you switched to the day shift? Yeah, they found him as well, backstage. He was hidden in one of the Freddy suits, and well...you know those suits have crossbeams and all those animatronic parts inside..." Henry ran a hand through his hair.

"We're gonna have to shut down. First Rob, those five children going missing, Jake being shoved in an animatronic suit...the police are gonna be conducting some investigations, questioning me and a couple of others, hopefully they'll be able to find out who did this, but...it's horrible."

"Yeah. So, what, that's it? We're just going to have to shut down now?" William asked, changing the topic.

"Seems like it. We might reopen in a while, maybe get some upgrades. But for now, we'll just have to close." Henry glanced up the sky absent-mindedly. "A-anyway, I don't want to be keeping you. If you want, you can just head home now. Not like we're going to be needing those animatroics to be fixed any time soon." Henry gave a weak laugh.

"Yeah. Well, I guess I'll see you around, Henry. Hope this all goes over well." William offered his hand to the other man.

"See you, Will. If we do reopen, we'll be sure to get you back as technician." Henry firmly took William's, and the two shook in farewell.

William returned to his car and swung the door open, and waved at Henry a final time before climbing inside and starting it up, and driving off down the near-empty road.

While he drove, he mulled over what Henry told him in his head. The police were going to be investigating, though he doubted they'd find anything. He'd been especially careful in doing this, covered up all his tracks. He might not even have been the only killer in the establishment; Jake's life had not taken by him, although his body had been hidden the same way. It was a puzzling case indeed; perhaps someone had found the bodies of his former victims hidden inside the animatronics and used the same method to murder and hide an enemy? Stranger things had happened.

He brushed those thoughts aside for later. The most important thing Henry had told him was that the pizzeria was closing. That would have the largest impact. He was now out of a job. How on Earth was he supposed to support his current project without money? His robots required some expensive parts, parts he couldn't obtain without money. William quickly calmed himself. Of course there would be a use for is skills in creating. His talent was wasted in that pizzeria anyway, it was merely an excuse to be close to so many children. He wanted to create art, machines with capabilities to surpass any other of their time.

He soon arrived home, and unlocked the door, closing it loudly. His children would be surprised and overjoyed to see him home so early.

A small face popped out from the top of the stairs. "Daddy?" the voice of a young girl rang out, followed by the sound of little feet running down the carpeted stairs. "Daddy!" the little girl repeated, embracing her father in a tight hug.

William laughed lightly and returned the hug. Although he forced himself to hide his true machinations when about other people, he felt no need o wear the mask in the warmth of his own family. They were the only thing he felt truly affectionate about, other than his mechanical creations. "How's my little baby doing? Are your brothers being nice to each other?"

The young girl looked up at him with her bright green eyes and nodded enthusiastically.

"Where are they, anyway? I would've thought they'd be happy to see me home so early."

She simply shrugged her shoulders and smiled mischievously. "I don't know," she said innocently, swinging her arms.

William smiled and raised an eyebrow. This was a game he was used to by now. "Are you sure? You don't know where they could be?"

She nodded confidently, withholding a giggle.

William sighed dramatically. "Oh, well, then. I guess they've gone missing forever."

At that, the little girl burst out laughing. "No! They're playing outside!" she said through the fit of giggles.

William couldn't help but laugh a little as well. "All right, you prankster, go back to playing with your toys. I need to do something for a while."

The girl seemed to recover almost immediately and nodded obediently, running back up the stairs.

Making sure she made it up the stairs without falling and hurting herself as she had done many times before, William exited the house through the back door and walked out onto the freshly cut grass. He turned and walked down the steps leading to the basement that he'd made his own workshop. He unlocked the door with the key he kept on him at all times and entered making his way over to the table where his current project was kept, and there he spent the remainder of the day.


	17. Chapter 16: London Bridge

Christopher was suddenly awake. It was a strange sensation, to awaken in a body that was incapable of sleep. He felt none of the grogginess or reluctance to shift from his position that waking up would usually have given him. It felt like he'd snapped out of a long trance rather than woken up from a nap.

The first thing he noticed upon awaking was that he was lying down. His legs were sprawled out in a way that would have made standing impossible, and he felt the floor pressing against his back. There was a dim light flashing on and off overhead. The brown snout that slightly obscured his vision told him that was still trapped in the form of Freddy Fazbear, though something felt different. He tried to raise an arm to support himself to stand up, but his arm seemed unwilling to move. His other limbs were just as stiff as his arm, and it required a considerable amount of effort for him to finally regain control of one of his arms, which he then used to prop himself up. He looked down at his furry body, and at once realised that he had been right in suspecting that something was wrong.

His whole body was filthy. Dark patches of dirt covered his body, as if they had been purposefully smeared all over. There were various tears and holes in his costume, revealing his endoskeleton. Wires hung loosely from some of them. What happened to him?

He tried to remember what had happened before he had fallen unconscious. He and his friends had been killed, and they became the characters of the Fazbear band. There was some boy called Sammy and...that's right, their bodies had been found inside the suits. They'd formulated a plan to get that man...what was his name...? Was it even a man? Christopher brushed those thoughts aside and dug further into his memory, failing to find anything that would help him find out how he'd fallen into such a state.

Christopher realised that he'd been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed the other presences in the dingy room. He stiffly turned his head to find two figures covered in shadows. They were slumped over, and didn't seem to notice him. He slowly stood to his feet and approached the figures, the flickering bulb overhead providing him with some light to make them out more clearly.

The first he recognised as Bonnie, albeit a mutilated version of Bonnie. He was sitting slumped up against the wall, hunched over slightly, but even then, Christopher could see clearly that he was missing the front portion of his face, leaving his lower jaw to jut out from the rest of his head. His left arm was also missing, a tangle of wires hanging from the shoulder.

The other was Chica, who was in an even worse state of disrepair than Bonnie. Her lower jaw had become detached from the top of her head almost entirely, held together only by a few wires at the back of her head. Her endoskeleton teeth were palpable as they were nestled in between both parts of her beak, among the various wires. Her arms were outstretched to either side, and at the ends of them, her hands were missing. Her eyes seemed to be sunken in her sockets, giving her a pleading look, as if begging for help. Christopher was thankful that the damage done to his body was nowhere near as severe as theirs.

"Jack," he said loudly, trying to make his friend come-to. He might have an idea about how they'd fallen into this sorry state. "Jack! Get up!" he demanded. When calling for him proved to be ineffective, Christopher walked slowly over to him; his legs were still stiff. He slammed his fist against the side of his head, and then roughly shook his shoulder. That seemed to do the trick, as two red dots lit up in the dark space where his face should have been. Jack shifted slightly, then looked up to meet Christopher's eyes. "Chris? What happened to you?" he asked, referring to the holes and stains all over the brown suit.

"You'd better take a look at yourself," Christopher replied.

"What?" Jack quickly looked down to the rest of his blue body. He raised his only arm and felt over to where his left on should have been, grabbing only wires. "Where's my arm? And-" he raised his arm to his face, or lack thereof, then gripped the edge of his lower jaw-"my face?"

"Shh, shut up. Look, I don't know what's going on either. And you shouldn't be complaining, Lilly's even worse," Christopher gestured over to the figure slumped against the wall next to them.

Jack looked over to her. "Woah. What happened to us?"

"I already told you, I don't know," Christopher said impatiently. "I was hoping you would remember. All I remember is that we were all killed by...someone, and we became these things."

"Duh, I remember that," Jack said indignantly. "And I remember we moved Michael out so people would find him. What was that guy's name again? The one that killed us?"

"Are you even listening? I already said, I don't know. You'd think with those long ears you'd be able to hear things better," Christopher replied hotly. He was beginning to grow irritated with Jack's questions on what he remembered; they just served as a reminder of how little he did remember.

"Well, wake the others up and see if we can find out what's going on!" Jack exclaimed, jumping to his feet, only to fall backwards. He groaned emphatically in annoyance before steadying himself with his single arm and rising again, seemingly oblivious to Christopher's almost smug expression as he watched on. "Stupid missing arm," he said to no one in particular before stalking over to Lilly.

They got to work on waking Lilly, taking only a touch on her beak. She jolted to life, startling the two boys.

"Chris? Jack? Oh, Jack, what happened to you? What happened to the both of you?" she asked animatedly. She tried to move her arm, achieving only a swivel of her shoulder joints. She tried again, growing frustrated with her arms' incoordination. "I can't move my arms," she said plainly.

"We don't know what's going on either, Lilly," Christopher said, "Do you remember how we got like this? Here, I'll help you up." Christopher held the stubby end of Lilly's right arm and pulled, lifting her onto her feet. "I don't have any hands," she said. It sounded more like a thought she was saying aloud. Her voice sounded worn out and emotionless.

"You didn't help me up when I fell," Jack commented sourly.

Chris chose to ignore him. "So do remember anything?"

Lilly eyed him, then looked up to the ceiling. "I remember they found me inside these things, but not much after that. Oh, yeah, I remember that we made up a plan to get that guy who killed us put into jail...and Sam tried to hurt someone because she got angry. Wait a second," Lilly looked around the room, "Where is Sam? And Michael?"

"Yeah, they aren't here," Jack concured. "Do you think they-"

"No, they wouldn't have," Christopher said quickly, not needing Jack to finish his suggestion. "Why would they throw them out but not us? You were acting weird during the show as well, remember?"

"Yeah, I guess," Jack said nonchalantly.

Lilly looked into the depths of the dark room above her."It looks like there could be another room over there." She tried to gesture to the small passage in the wall, grunting when her arms refused to move.

"Oh yeah," Christopher said, internally kicking himself for not noticing sooner. "Sam and Michael might be in there."

"Good idea, Captain Obvious," Jack said flatly as he walked past the other two in the depths of the darkness of the other room.

Christopher scowled but followed afterwards, with Lilly following closely behind.

Sure enough, on the other side of the room, was another room, identical in size and shape to the first, with Foxy lying on the floor, head and shoulders partially slumped against the wall, and Fredbear sitting in the far corner.

Foxy was in a worse condition than he had been in previously, but he was nowhere near as disfigured as Bonnie or Chica. The entirety of the costume that had covered his legs had been removed, and the right side of his face was ripped and teared, revealing his endoskeleton ear. Fredbear was in the best condition of all of them, his golden fur only stained here and there.

"I told you they'd be here," Christopher told Jack, with just a hint of pride in his voice.

Jack ignored him and attempted to wake up Samantha, Christopher and Lilly doing to the same with Michael. Within about a minute, the two were awake and alert, though only one of them was moving.

Samantha was the first to stir, and at once she was moving as soon as she came to. Her head snapped from one side to another, trying to take in the details of her surroundings. Then her flicked up to Jack, standing just above her. "Oh, hello. My name's Samantha. Who are you?" she asked pleasantly.

"Quit messing around, Sam, it's me, Jack. Come on, get up."

Samantha's eyelids opened in recognition. "Jack? You look different." She raised her hook to her jaw in thought.

"Yeah, duh, I'm missing my dang face!"

Samantha flinched back slightly. "Geez, sorry. So, what's going on? And, um, did you notice that you're missing your face?"

Jack shook his head and turned away from her. It was amazing sometimes how alike to a peppy dog she was sometimes, bouncing happily to her owner after being scolded.

"Great," Jack grumbled, "How are we going to find out what happened to us if none of us remember? We don't even know where we are!"

"What about Sammy? He must know what happened to us," Michael suggested from the corner of the room.

"Sammy? Where's Sammy?" Christopher piped up.

"He must be around here somewhere. Look for a door to get out of this room, then maybe we'll get somewhere. We could still be in Freddy's, just in another hidden room or something," Michael replied.

"We probably should have thought of doing that sooner," Lilly said in a deadpan voice.

"Come on, then," Jack urged, as he began to walk back into the room he'd woken up in.

"Wait, shhh!" Chris hissed. "Do you hear that?"

The five of them stood in silence and listened intently. Sure enough, there were loud, unfamiliar voices coming from outside of the room.


	18. Chapter 17: Golden Pupils

"What-" Jack began to ask, turning to the others in confusion.

"Shhh!" Christopher hissed again, bringing a single finger to his mouth. Jack begrudgingly complied, listening for the drone of voices past the walls they were contained n.

The voices grew louder. They didn't sound too far away from the room they occupied and they echoed throughout the building, barely audible to the group.

"Woah," one of them said in awe, "This place is huge! Fredbear's was like, the size of the Dining Area here!"

"Yeah, they mentioned something about going all out on this place. Even the new robots cost a fortune," another voice replied, sounding a little more timid than the first.

There was a pause between this voice and the next, another new voice. "That's not Freddy. Not the one I remember, anyway. He looks so cold and...lifeless now."

"Yeah, they look more like toys or something than actual animals."

"Hey, is this one new?" another new voice called.

There was the vague sound of echoing footsteps, at least four people were walking judging by the steps.

"Yeah, I think so. There wasn't one like that in the old pizzeria."

The voices seemed to get more distant, until the five could no longer make out their words and they faded away into murmurs. Samantha snapped her head from the odd angle she had it at while listening to the conversation. "Who are they? I haven't heard anyone like that before." Her eyes darted from side to side while she spoke for no apparent reason.

"That doesn't matter. What does matter is what Freddy they were talking about," Christopher said. "I'm Freddy, and I'm in here, so who are they talking about?"

"Maybe we'd be able to see if we didn't just stand around here and got out of this room," Jack suggested impatiently.

"Good idea," Lilly agreed halfheartedly. She hobbled over to the room on the other side and located the door almost immediately. "Well, come on, then."

"Wait, wait, we can't just walk out there. We don't know who they are or what they're doing here. How do we know they aren't going to hurt us?" Christopher demanded.

"It's a little bit too late for that, Chris," Jack said, and much to Christopher's annoyance, he knew he was right. What could be done to harm a ghost?

Samantha sighed in frustration. "Come on, let's just do this. It's boring standing here." She moved with surprising speed to the door, pushing past Christopher on her way, ignoring his cry of "Hey, watch it!" She grabbed hold of the handle and pushed. The door didn't budge, but that didn't stop her from putting all her weight on it in the hopes that it would.

"It's locked, Sam," Lilly sighed.

"Darn!" She banged her hook against the door, then stared silently at it, as if willing it open would unlock it. "There's gotta be some way to open it..."

"We could try to break it down," Jack suggested. "We're pretty big now, I'm sure we could."

Samantha nodded her head jerkily, and began slamming into the door full force.

"You're not going to open it yourself, Sam, we all need to do it," Christopher said. He marched over next to the door as well before looking expectantly at Lilly and Jack, standing behind him. They were staring at him in surprise. "Come on!"

"I didn't think you'd want to do this, Chris," Lilly mused. She took her place in front of the metal door as well, next to Jack.

"We have to get out of here somehow. Anyway, on the count of three. One...two...three!"

The four of them barged into the door, creating a powerful bang, though the door remained strong and sturdy, refusing to be defeated so effortlessly

"Again!" Christopher ordered. They prepared themselves again and smashed into the door, and were successful in opening it. The door swung on its hinges, thumping against the wall next to it, freeing the children from their cell. Samantha, who had charged into door the force with extra vigour, lay on the floor on her stomach, disoriented, yet successful.

Now that the barrier blocking them from the rest of the world had been removed, they were free to explore their new surroundings. They were at the end of an unfamiliar hallway, shorted than either of the hallways from the previous pizzeria. The floor was checkered black and white, and stars hung from wires above them. Pizzas and pizza slices decorated the walls, and there were two doorways to the restrooms before them. It was noticeably more modern than the other pizzeria, and though the brightly coloured stars would have them believe it was a place full of joy, the hallway seemed almost sterile, untouched.

"So...where are we?" Jack asked the question they'd all been thinking aloud.

"Why do you think any of us would know, Jack? We're all in the same boat you are," Christopher reminded him sharply.

Lilly sighed. "Come on, there's no point in arguing. We should just look around and see if we can find Sammy. If he's even here, that is..."

"Sammy?" Jack scoffed "I told you, we can't trust him. We did the plan like he told us to, and we're still stuck here, but now we're all ripped up. Look at yourself, Lilly, you can't even move your arms and your mouth is all weird."

Lilly's eyes traveled down to look at the tip of her beak. "My mouth? What's wrong with my mouth? I can't see it from here-"

Their conversation was interrupted by a blinding beam of light coming from the far end of the hall.

"H-hello? Who's there?" a voice asked. They recognised it as one of the voices they'd heard earlier. The light was so bright that they couldn't make out who it was that was calling them. They couldn't even move or think clearly. They all felt dazed, disoriented.

"Oh, man," the voice said nervously, but with a hint of excitement. "Guys! You've got to see this!" The light soon vanished and the children were left alone again.

"What the heck was that?!" Jack exclaimed angrily.

"Ugh, I feel all dizzy," Samantha complained, still lying on the floor. "That light was so bright..."

"Yeah, that was odd," Lilly said, stepping forward experimentally, "I felt like that too. All the more reason for us to find Sammy."

A crowd of voices from further down the hall stopped them in their tracks, and the tormenting light soon reappeared, though this time it was slowly approaching along with the voices. The children froze, once again discombobulated by the light.

"Woah," one of the voices breathed. "They must have stored away the old ones for parts or something. Geez, look at them..."

"Poor Bonnie!" another sqeaked, "He lost his whole face! I always liked Bonnie. He was cute."

"Don't get so close, Jessica," one of them said in a warning voice. "They're still active, they could start up again at any point, and I wouldn't want to be next to them when they do..."

The one called Jessica tsked. "I just wanted to get a closer look at him."

The bright light suddenly flickered off, and the owners of the voices were now visible to the children. Six teenagers surrounded them, each of them were staring at them in interest or wariness. One of them, wearing the signature uniform of a night guard of Freddy's, fumbled with the heavy duty torch, hitting it and pressing the button repeatedly.

"Damn, the batteries must have died."

"Doesn't matter, there's enough light here anyway," one of them replied. He was wearing a green shirt and had messy hair, and a casual or air about him despite the situation he was in along with the rest of his peers.

"Man, this is so cool," a red-headed, freckled boy said, "Look at these things! They're like...zombie animatronics or something!"

Meanwhile, the children were scanning their faces. They were unfamiliar, a group of adventurous teenagers and nothing more, and yet there was something deep in the back of their minds that was telling them that they knew them. Their faces seemed filthy, dirtied a vile sin they'd comitted in the past.

"Do we know these people?" Christopher queried, being sure to speak only to the other spirits. "I think they did something to us, but I don't know what..."

"They're the ones that killed us," Jack said in rising anger, "That must be it."

"All of them? It was one person, Jack," Christopher retorted.

"Really, do you remember exactly who it was?

"Oh, would you both just shut up?" Samantha rose to her feet, startling the crowd before her. They stepped back in instinct as she extended to her full height, towering over them.

Murmurs circulated through the group of teens, and Samantha could catch snippets of "What's Foxy doing?" "Why is it looking at us like that?" They knew that Foxy was alive, listening to their every word.

Samantha raised her hook and dropped her jaw, revealing the rows of plastic teeth. She snapped her mouth shut again, then opened it, almost indecisively, and flicked her eyes between the members of the group.

Suddenly, she lunged forward at the one in the night guard uniform, piercing her hook through the side of his shirt, stabbing his skin slightly. She grabbed a hold of him using her other hand and picked him off the ground, ignoring his screams of protest.

"Lamar!" a plump girl from the group called out.

"Help! Someone, help, please!" Lamar cried out. His voice cracked as he struggled in Samantha's grip.

In response, Samantha stared deeply into her victim's widened eyes. He was in a state of hysteria, yet he couldn't look away from the golden eyes staring into his own.

Samantha opened her jaw and emitted an inhuman scream. The sound of a wild animal being maimed rang out through the hall, triggering a sense fight-or-flight in the teenagers. A girl in a purple shirt and blue jeans barged into her, screaming a war cry, barely managing to throw Samantha off balance. Samantha threw Lamar to the ground with force and set her eyes on the girl now. She roared again, the same animalistic cry as before, and brought her hook down on her, slicing through her raised arm. Blood began to ooze from the wound, and the girl clutched at it, staring up at Samantha in fear.

Just as Samantha prepared to slash at the girl again, the boy in the green shirt came barreling forward, knocking into Samantha. While she was caught off-guard, the boy clutched the girl's hand and pulled her away from the fox, fleeing from the scene along with the others.

"Should we go after them?" Lilly asked. "They could be our killers."

"They must be," Jack said firmly. "I know I recognise them from somewhere. I know they've done something bad."

"Let's go find them, then. The sooner we get this over with the sooner we can be free," Christopher agreed confidently

Samantha looked at him. "You didn't want to hurt anyone a few minutes ago, you weenie. You just wanted to be a goody-two shoes and look for Sammy. You only want to do something now because I did it first, and everyone else wants to do it as well."

"Wha-no, I just changed my mind! It's none of your business anyway." Christopher retorted. He was taken aback by the sudden accusation. It wasn't like Sam to accuse people or point out their flaws.

"Shut up, you two," Lilly snapped. "They'll get away if we don't go looking for them now."

"We still have this one," Jack gestured to Lamar, who was still quivering on the ground, abandoned by his friends, left for dead.

Samantha grunted and lifted him from the ground. He was breathing weakly and his face was not twisted into an expression as it had been previously. She raised her hook again, and plunged it into his chest, piercing his heart. He uttered something between a cough and a gasp, and Samantha let him drop to the floor, removing her now bloodied hook from his flesh. "There. Now let's look for the others."

The other three silently agreed.

Christopher and Lilly continued down the hallway, passing the body of Lamar as they walked. The room up ahead seemed to stretch out into a larger area. Jack and Samantha turned and entered a hallway connected to the other. At the end of the hallway was a brightly lit room, attracting them to it like moths to a flame.

Christopher and Lilly soon entered the large room, finding it to be a Dining Area similar to the one they'd been at previously, but different in many ways. Balloons now hovered above the rows of party tables. Stacks of gift boxes sat around the room, each one with a different coloured bow to wrap it up. The most remarkable change, though, was the three new animatronics standing on the show stage.

"Lilly, look." Christopher pointed to the three polished animatronics. "Is that Freddy and Bonnie and Chica?"

"I...think so." Lilly studied the three figures. Sure enough, there was a chubby brown bear with a dapper hat and bowtie, with a microphone in hand, ready to sing, there was a blue bunny with a red bowtie and a matching bass guitar in his hands, and there was a yellow chicken with a bib and a pink cupcake on a platter, but the characters' identities seemed to be the only things that had remained after their redesign.

The animatronics were made of glossy plastic, and had bright, rosy cheeks. Freddy was chubbier than before, lacking all the squarish parts that the original Freddy Fazbear had. His face was much smoother now, and his cheeks were full and rounded. A single red stripe decorated his top hat to correspond with his red cheeks.

Bonnie was the most different to his previous counterpart. He was much slimmer than the new Freddy, and the original Bonnie. He was now a much more vivid shade of blue, and had pure white accents. He had rosy red cheeks similar to the new Freddy's, and held a guitar identical to the one the original Bonnie held. His eyelids were purple, and his eyes were green as opposed to Bonnie's striking red. He looked much friendlier and lively than the original Bonnie.

Chica was slimmer and curvier than her predecessor. Her torso was rounded at the top, then dipped in near the end, above a pink section of her waist that acted as a garment. Like Bonnie, she had purple eyelids, and a round head.

"They look like dolls now," Lilly mused, stepping closer to their replacements.

"I guess they just threw us out and used these ones instead," Christopher said sourly. "But it doesn't matter. We need to find those people first."

They separated again. Christopher stalked down the left part of the room, while Lilly took the right. Their eyes provided them with a meager source of light, but it was enough, and it seemed as if they would not need to use their vision, as Christopher heard the muffled sound of uneven breathing coming from beneath a party table next to him.

"Found you," he snarled. He acted quickly, knowing that his prey was prepared to flee at the slightest disturbance in their surroundings. He pushed away the table concealing them and swept in to grab them. There were two of them; the plump girl with the make-up, and the red haired boy. He was successful in capturing the girl, grasping onto her leg, but the boy slipped through his fingers and fled quickly towards the door leading into the hallway.

"Lilly!" Christopher called out, alerting her of the boy approaching her path. She seemed to spot him as soon as she was called, and rushed in front of the doorway to meet him. He came to a halt so suddenly that in trying to reverse, he tripped over himself and fell to the floor. He propped himself up and attempted to scoot away as Lilly approached him, but she prevented his flight by standing firmly down on his leg. He let out a scream in agony as her clawed foot pressed down harder, crushing his bones with ease.

Lilly pondered how to finish him off while he struggled, crying out for help. The movement in her arms was very limited, which was not helped by her lack of hands. She remembered Jack's comment on the state of her mouth, and a quick attempt to chomp down confirmed that her jaw was also immobile. The tip of her beak, however, was exceptionally sharp.

She bent down until she was mere inches away from the boy's face, who had stopped screaming now and was simply crying in despair. She threw back her head, and then, in one quick motion, brought it back down in the middle of his face. He howled as the beak pierced the middle of his nose, and was silenced as Lilly brought her beak down on him one last time, smashing into his forehead.

Satisfied that her victim was dead, Lilly rose back up to meet Christopher, walking towards her. He raised an eyelid as he approached.

"Did you have to be so...bloody?" He inspected the corpse of the boy, then looked back up the Lilly, whose face and beak were flecked with spots of blood.

"Is the other girl dead?" Lilly asked, ignoring the question.

"Yeah, I just twisted her head until she died. It was a lot easier than...slamming into her face with my mouth."

Lilly sighed. "It doesn't matter. Do you think there are any more hiding in here?"

"No. They would've ran while we were busy killing these two. Jack and Sam might find the other two, though. Come on, let's go see them.

On the other side of the building, Jack and Samantha had split up to investigate the four party rooms in the other hallway. The rooms were as clean and untouched as the rest of the building, which was a surprise to both of them, considering how dirty the previous pizzeria had been. Upon entering the furthest room on the right, Jack noticed a vent near the bottom of the wall. Oddly, it was large enough for him to fit into, and didn't seem to serve any purpose. After a brief search around the rest of the small room, which contained only two party tables, Jack turned to exit the room, stopping only when he heard a sigh of relief from behind.

He twisted around, scanning the room wildly. He had checked under the tables, he was sure there was no one there. His eyes traveled to the large vent, and he could have grinned if he had the ability to do so.

He purposefully stepped towards the vent, each step deliberate and landing heavily. He bent down as much as his robotic body let him, and peered into the opening of the vent. There, illuminated by the dim, red light from his eyes was a petite girl, curled up in the vent. She opened her mouth to scream as soon as she saw him, but his outstretched hand silenced her as her wrapped his metallic fingers around her face. He tugged hard, pulling her closer to him as she tried to push herself further into the vent to escape his clutches, only making his grip stronger. With another pull, she was yanked from the vent and into the open, now vulnerable. Jack did not loosen his hold on her face as he pulled her up to meet the glowing, red dots in his endoskeleton face that served as his eyes. He let out a cry, almost exactly like the one Samantha had when she had Lamar in her grasp, and tightened her grip.

The girl cried out as Jack's fingers dug into her skin. She kicked her legs with surprising strength, though Jack felt nothing. His grip continued to tighten until he achieved his desire, and pierced her skin, creating unsightly wounds in her face. He let her drop to the ground and stood over her as she clutched her bleeding face. Her eyes were shut tight, unwilling to look into the face, or lack thereof, of her attacker.

Jack lifted his foot and raised it above her, taking his time. He stomped down, crushing her midsection, and relished in the screams that resulted. To finish his work off, Jack raised his foot once more, and brought it down heavily onto the girl's head, crushing it.

Jack lifted his foot from the gore and exited the room, finding Samantha in the hallway again.

"Did you find anything?" she asked eagerly.

"No, Sam, I didn't find anything, and that's why I spent so long in there and why I'm covered in blood." He gestured to his torso and leg meaningfully.

"...oh. Well, I checked the other rooms, and there's nothing there, so we should probably go and see-hey! Look, look, look!" Samantha pointed to the other end of the hallway, the end that connected the the hallway they'd first found themselves in. There were two figures, the boy in the green shirt with the messy hair, and the girl with the pink shirt and blue jeans. They were bent over the body of Lamar, searching his body for something. It seemed that they found it, as they rose to their feet, and as they did so, spotted Samantha and Jack eyeing them from the hallway. They broke into a sprint and ran down the other end of the hallway.

"Come on, quick! Let's go!" Samantha urged. She began running as well, just as fast as the teenagers.

"Chris and Lilly are at the other end of that hallway, Sam, they'll get them. Slow down a bit, I can't run as fast as you! My legs are still all stiff!"

As Christopher and Lilly went to exit the Dining Area and locate their friends, they came face-to-face with another two teenagers. The teenagers froze up upon seeing them, breathing heavily. Christopher and Lilly wordlessly approached them as they stood in the doorway of the room. They seemed to snap back to reality, and ran past the two, through the small space that the animatronics did not cover. Christopher lunged forward and tackled the boy just as he ran past, holding him close to him in a sinister embrace.

"John!" The girl stopped in her tracks and looked for a moment as if she was going to run back to him.

"Go, Charlie! Just go!" The boy called John called back. Christopher held his head between his fuzzy hands and crushed it, silencing him.

"John! No, John!" Charlie cried. Tears fell from her eyes, not seeming to care about Lilly slowly approaching her. Then, the gentle melody of a music box made them all stop.

"Hello? Christopher? Jack? Who's there?" The voice a young boy called out.

"Sammy?" Christopher let go of John's body and looked to the source of the voice. A tall, thin, spindly marionette slowly floated out from the darkness, its pale face shining through.

"Oh, Christopher, you're finally awake..." Sammy stopped as he became aware of the other presence in the room; the girl standing in the middle of the Dining Area, feet away from him. They stared at each other silently for a moment, neither of them moving. Both of them simply stared, as if looking a lost picture of a time they'd forgotten long ago.

Sammy raised a hand towards the girl. "Charlie...?"

The girl's eyes widened and she jolted to life. She sprinted towards the door to the pizzeria, and fumbled with the lock and key in her hand. Sammy followed quickly behind, floating towards her.

"Charlie, wait! It's me, please, don't run away!"

His words fell on empty ears, as Charlie unlocked the door and squeezed through the opening, slamming the door behind her.

Sammy stopped moving, and simply stared at the locked door, and once again, the children were left alone in the darkness.


	19. Chapter 18: Grand Reopening

The car slowed to a halt before the expansive building, and its owner stepped out, beholding it. They'd certainly outdone themselves with this one. It was at least twice the size of the old pizzeria, and looked even more lively. The building was a vivid blue, with purple stripes running around its perimeter. The sign on the front of the building was no bright and colourful, and depicted all four of the main characters of the pizzeria, as opposed to the relatively dull sign featuring only Freddy they had previously.

William smiled at the characters' brand new, lively appearance. He'd managed to take such horrendous, grotesque characters, and turn them into something that any child would enjoy. They were inviting, friendly faces; a pleasant and much needed change from the old, battered animatronics that were used prior.

William stepped up to the front door and opened, immediately greeted by the aggravating noise of children from the Dining Area. _Some things never change,_ William thought. He stood at the back of the room, taking in the new features. The Dining Area was by far the largest room in the new location, even larger than the one before. The Prize Corner had been merged with the Dining Area, and the Puppet's box sat undisturbed and alone. The Puppet had never been a very popular character with the children.

Over on the right side of the room was the Game Area, where a few arcade cabinets were lined up in an orderly fashion. Their contents were of the usual; Pac-Man, Space Invaders. There was that Donkey Kong game Mike had been going on about among them. William mildly thought about bringing him here; all three of his children, perhaps. They would love the animatronics he'd built for the pizzeria.

The small animatronic called Balloon Boy stood near the carousel, unmoving. He resembled a chubby young boy in a blue and red stripped shirt, and a matching propeller cap, and wore a permanent smile. In one of his round hands, he held a sign reading "Balloons!" and in the other, a shiny red and yellow balloon, proudly promoting his product to the children nearby. He seemed to be a hit with the kids, as five or six of them crowded him at a time, requesting balloons. Balloon Boy simply laughed while the children stormed the supply of balloons from around him.

Past the Game Area was a new addition to the pizzeria: Kids' Cove. Its sole inhabitant was the new and improved Foxy that William had designed specifically with younger children in mind. He'd never liked the old Foxy, with its gnarly hook, twisted smile, and torn suit. He'd never gotten around to fixing it, and he had never intended to.

The new Foxy was dubbed Funtime Foxy, as she was such a different character than the original. Her colour scheme consisted of a faded pink and white, and she sported a large, seemingly puffy tail that wagged behind her at all times. She barely retained the pirate aspect of the old Foxy's character, with her blunt, plastic hook being the only remnant. Red spots imitating lipstick dotted the front of her snout, and she wore a red bowtie just below her chin. He held in a snicker, recalling Henry's fondness for the original character. He'd probably crucify him for changing Foxy so drastically.

At that thought, a familiar voice made him spin around. "William? Will, is that you?" There stood Henry, looking the same as he had four years ago, the last time he'd seen him.

"Ah, Henry! Good to see you again!" William greeted, offering a hand to be shaken.

Henry took it almost hesitantly, and shook it weakly. "You, uh, you look good. How have you been doing?

William had to admire Henry's willingness to lie in order to keep from offending him. Another mask people he met often wore. In truth, William had seen better days, to say the least. He had never been the liveliest or healthiest of people, but it was far more noticeable now. He'd grown a slight hunch, and his posture had taken a turn for the worse from too many days spent hunched over his work desk. His gaunt face seemed even more pale and bony now than before, and his eyes were sunken, with dark bags hanging under his eyes. His usually neat, combed hair stuck up slightly in disarray. He was thinner, as if he had given up eating abruptly, and the veins in his arms were far too visible.

"I've been doing well. Been spending some time with my family in my spare time, and the company paid me well for these new animatronics, so I haven't been completely out of a job."

"Hey, that's great. But, um, your shift isn't until tonight. You don't have the day shift." Henry raised his eyebrow in slight confusion, though it appeared as though he thought he was in the wrong in the situation.

"Oh, yes, I'm just here to watch the show on the first day of opening. I haven't seen them perform on stage yet," William explained calmly.

Henry nodded and pushed his glasses further up his nose. "Oh, right. Well, they look great William. I-I'm sure the kids'll love them." Henry turned to look at the animatronics on stage. "The show's gonna be starting in a while, so uh, you're just in time."

"Alright. Well, in the mean time, I'm going to have a look around; see what they've done with this place."

Henry nodded again absent mindedly. "Y-yeah, sure, go ahead."

William gave Henry a small smile that vanished as soon as he stepped past him. He turned into the hallway connected to the Dining Area and quickly scanned the walls for any secret door. _It has to be here somewhere. It must be._

Then he spotted it, at the very end of the hallway. A large, foreboding door labelled "Parts & Service". He grinned and picked up his pace, heading to the door. It was oddly cracked open an inch, just asking for any poking noses to inspect its interior. William obliged and pulled the door open just enough for him to fit through almost giddily, and slunk inside, being careful to shut the door behind him.

He eagerly looked around the room with a strange, foreign sense of excitement. They were all there, lying on the ground, slumped over, wallowing in their own self pity, remembering days long past. Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy...and Fredbear. No Spring Bonnie. He wasn't in either of the two attached rooms, where was he?

William felt betrayed. Had they not brought Spring Bonnie from the previous pizzeria? Were they ashamed of the sins that had been committed by using it? Were they afraid of it?

He turned on his heel and exited through the door, walking back down the hallway to the Dining Area. He regained his calm and reserved composure before approaching Henry.

"Well, Henry, I have to say, it looks like the company spared no expenses with this place. They really went all out. But, I have to ask," William leaned in closer to Henry, and spoke with a hushed tone, "Why did they keep the old models? They were all sitting in the back room there at the end of the hallway." William straightened up again, holding his hands behind his back. "Any reason?"

Henry coughed into his fist. "Those older models are really just for spare parts now. You know, if any of the new animatronics malfunction or need a new part. N-not that I'm implying they will," he added quickly upon seeing the questioning eyebrow William raised, "B-but, you know, i-in the case that they ever do..."

William shook his head curtly and raised a hand. "No need to worry about offending me, Henry. Any good creator acknowledges the potential flaws in their work. I wouldn't be much of a technician if I didn't expect such things to happen, would I?" He gave a short chuckle, to which Henry nervously laughed back.

"But, I have to admit, I was also curious about Spring Bonnie's absence. Would that be due to the "incident" that it caused?" William looked Henry straight in the eyes, pressuring him for an honest answer.

Henry straightened his red tie. "W-well, that suit, um, didn't have the best lifespan. It was probably for the best that it was boarded up in the Safe Room back at the old location, y-you know? Don't wanna dig up old memories..." He flinched as he recalled the incident.

William nodded. "But, you know, now that you mention it," he brought a hand to his chin thoughtfully, "I do remember reading an article in the paper about the children going missing here..." William glanced down at Henry, who was intentionally avoiding his judging gaze. He already knew exactly where this conversation was going, yet he could do nothing to stop it. "And if I remember correctly, there must have been some sort of mistake...the article said that the bodies of the five children were never found. Didn't you tell me-?"

"Yes, okay, I admit it!" Henry ran his hands down his slender face. "We-we hid the bodies, alright? We-we took them out of the animatronics, all of them. The five children, Rob, Jake...w-we got rid of them, and we sealed up the suit. We couldn't let the police know about this Will, we just couldn't! If-if they found out those children were stuffed into the animatronics and we just let them perform, o-or that the spring-lock suits killed someone, th-they'd shut us down like that! I need this job, Will! I-I can't just let this place close without ever even knowing..." Henry's breathing was rapid between his flurry of words and stutters. By now some of the customers were staring, perplexed at the scene. Henry continued to rant on about foul smelling animatronics, and blood stains, and dead teenagers, unaware of the many watchful eyes on his back.

William placed his bony hands on the other man's shoulders, and locked eyes with him. He couldn't let him draw so much attention. "Shhh, calm down, Henry, it's alright. Just calm down, people are watching."

Henry's breathing began to grow more steady, and he had lost the frantic, panicked look in his eyes. "Thanks..." he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Good. Now, look," William continued to whisper, "I'm not going to tell anyone about this. You don't have to worry about that; I need this job just as much as you do. Now, just relax and take a seat near one of the party tables. Looks like the show's about to start."

And, sure enough, the lights in the Dining Area had dimmed, and the spot lights focused in on the the stage's brand new users. The show had begun.


	20. Chapter 19: Summertime Blues

"So, what do you guys wanna do?" A face flipped down in front of Maxwell Afton, startling him. The girl's tan face wore an amused expression, achieving her desired effect on the diffident boy. Her bright orange pigtails hung from either side of her head as she hung upside down from the climbing frame, her legs wrapped around to bars at the top to prevent her from falling.

Max let out a frightened yelp and stumbled backwards, tripping over his own shoes, but caught himself before he could fall face-first into the sand. Georgia let out a snicker as she watched the boy collect himself, trying to gain control over his breath. "Don't do that, Georgia..."

"Aw, come on. Not my fault you're so easy to scare," the girl giggled before pulling herself upright jumping from the top of the frame, landing just beside Max. Her red shoes kicked up the sand as she met the ground. She wore a simple, sleeveless orange shirt to match her hair, and a red skirt. "Anyway, it's so boring around here. You can't blame me for having some fun!"

Max eyed the girl. "We just got here. How can you be bored already? You haven't even gone on the swings yet." The children had taken advantage of the bright Summer's day and visited the neighbourhood playground; any healthy, energetic child's fantasy. Georgia, however, was not as easily as impressed as other children.

"We've been here so many times before. I've done everything already, and it's boring now," she explained as if the boy ought to have known.

"Well, whatever. Let me and Sarah play here for a while and then we'll find something to do." Max walked straight past the climbing frame, tugging at his black and grey striped shirt, and set his sights on the swingset, where another girl seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself. The girl wore a red bow in her shortly cut, brown hair, and a neon pink shirt. She kicked her legs back and forth, pushing herself higher on the swing each time.

Max took the seat next to her and leaned back, then lifted his feet off the ground, pushing the swing into motion. The rusty chains holding it to the rest of the swingset swung gently to and fro, carrying Max with it.

"Pfft. Come on, Maximus, you call that a swing?" Georgia scoffed, folding her arms.

Max looked at her with slight annoyance and came to a slow stop as his legs hung limp. There was no point in telling Georgia to stop calling him Maximus, as he'd found out in the four years they'd known each other, so he simply ignored her.

Taking Max's silence as a prompt, Georgia approached the swing with a bold smile on her face. "Let me show you how to really get some air on these things." She grabbed hold of the plastic seat, and pulled it back. Max turned his head to the side, tightening his grip on the swing's chains in anticipation of what Georgia was about to do, whether he like it or not.

"No, Georgia, wait-" Georgia had already shoved the plastic seat of the swing as hard as she could, and Max felt himself swinging high into the air, higher than he'd ever gone before on the swing. He felt the gentle breeze brush past his face as he went, and let out a cry that quietened as he rose, and then, he was still for just a moment, just a split-second. In that second, his apprehensiveness was drained from his body, and in its place, adrenaline flooded him. He fell back to the ground, and lowered his feet to stop himself.

"Wow!" Sarah said in awe, hopping off of her seat next to Max. "I've never seen anyone go that high! That was soooo cool!"

"Yeah," was all Max managed to say through his wide smile. In truth, he had not gone all too high, though to the children, he might as well have been flying.

"See? Told you you'd go high," Georgia folded her arms in satisfaction. "Now can we go?"

Sarah nodded and followed Georgia to the door of the picket fence surrounding the perimeter of the playground before. She looked back to Max, who had just stood up from the swing's seat, and was rubbing a hand through his messy, brown hair, and raised an eyebrow. "Coming, Max?"

"Y-yeah." Max picked up his pace and walked out of the playground, still shaken from the swing. He quickly caught up with Georgia and Sarah, joining in on their conversation.

"Has anyone seen Josh? I haven't seen him around since school ended," Sarah asked as they walked.

"Grounded," Georgia answered frankly, "Again. Told me something about his parents being mad at him 'cause he made a mess of his room and didn't clean it up, so he probably won't be out until tomorrow." She kicked a stone across the street and watched it roll onto the road beside it. "That sucks though, to be grounded on the first few days of Summer vacation."

Sarah and Max nodded in concurrence.

As they walked down the street towards no particular destination, they crossed a large building, with a colourful sign catching their eyes.

"Hey," Georgia stopped and examined the building's exterior, "Isn't that the new Freddy's that just opened?"

Sure enough, the sign portrayed four colourful characters; a bear, a bunny, a chicken and a fox, smiling out to the world before them.

"Oh, yeah!" Sarah said. "I heard about that place! They got all new animals for it, and they look a lot better than the old ones!"

Georgia turned to Max. "Didn't your Dad make those new robots, Max?"

Max furrowed his brow. "Yeah. He spent a lot of time building them, and making sure they work right. I don't like them that much though..." His mind drifted to his first viewing of his father's creations, "They're creepy. I don't like the way they move..."

Georgia rolled her eyes playfully. "Of course you'd be scared of a bunch of friendly animals."

"Wait, robots?" Sarah flicked her eyes from one friend to the other, searching for answers. "I always though Freddy and his friends were just people wearing costumes!"

"Nope. Robots, Sarah," Georgia deadpanned.

Sarah thought on the topic for a moment before coming to a conclusion. "I guess that makes sense. They did always move and talk kind of weirdly."

"You know," Georgia said slowly, "We should go there sometime. Have you been there yet, Max?"

Max shook his head. "I've only seen the new robots in my Dad's workshop."

"Well, how about we go tomorrow, to check the place out? I wanna see if these robots are as scary as you say, Maximus," Georgia taunted.

"Yeah, okay! I'm sure my Mom and Dad will let me go, but everyone else will have to ask theirs as well," Sarah said.

"Great. If either of you see Josh, or May, tell them to ask their parents if we can go," Georgia frowned slightly, "But May will probably just get lost on the way or something." She was only half-joking; another of the three children's friends, May, had managed to get separated from the rest of the group more times than they could count.

"I'll tell May about it tomorrow," Max agreed, "But I don't really want to knock on Josh's door, if he's still grounded. His Mom and Dad are scary..."

Georgia sighed and rolled her eyes again. "Fine, I'll tell Josh. You just tell May to ask her Mom and Dad to bring her here tomorrow or the day after or something, and then we'll all meet up. Got it?"

"Got it," Sarah and Max said in unison.

At that moment, a soft beeping sound coming from Max alerted him of the time. He lifted his wristwatch to get a better look at the time: 6 o'clock. His father had set it to go off at that time, alerting him that it was time for him to go home.

"I've gotta go home now," Max informed the girls. "My Dad gets angry when I stay out too late..."

"Yeah, it is getting pretty late. I think I'm gonna go home too," Georgia nodded.

Max turned the opposite way and began to walk, bidding goodbye to his friends, who waved back as they walked the other way. Max lived about 10 minutes away from the pizzeria, and subconsciously quickened his step, as he was now alone, even more vulnerable than before.

After about 5 minutes of walking he saw a small group of people further up the road. They seemed rowdy, and animated, as he could hear their shouts and chatter from a distance. He stopped himself, knowing exactly who was coming down the path. There was no way to avoid them; they were walking straight towards him, and would inevitably notice him as they drew closer. But that knowledge didn't shift Max from his firm stance. And then, it was too late. One of the boys said something, and pointed to him, and then, they all started walking faster.

Max jolted to life, and began walking again. He needed to look like he was just minding his own business. Giving them attention seemed to make the situation worse.

The distance between him and the group was soon shortened, and they come close enough for him to fully make them out. Four teenage boys stood feet away from him, all of them grinning down on him sinisterly.

"Hey, Max," a boy wearing a grey t-shirt greeted him with a crooked smile, "What are you doing out here by yourself? It's pretty dangerous to be all alone in the streets so late, you know."

"Leave me alone, Mike," Max murmured. He wished he could have shouted at his older brother, but his friends' intimidating forms standing over him hushed him down.

"Huh? What was that? You'll need to speak up, Max," Mike bent down with a hand cupped to his ear. "What did you want to say?"

"I-I said...leave me alone," Max stammered out, still barely audible.

"What's the matter, Max?" One of the other boys asked with a sly grin, "Cat got your tongue?" The boy hissed in a poor impression of a cat, and swiped a hand out in front of Max's face, causing the young boy to flinch back. The boys chuckled at his unease.

"Careful, Bruno, you might give the kid a heart attack!" Another boy said through his laughter, only fueling the group's amusement.

Max clenched his fists, and hung his head but said nothing. Nothing he could have said would have done him any good, and would only have earned him more teasing.

"You're not gonna start crying, Max, are you?" Another boy in the group raised an eyebrow and his smile widened.

"N-no..."

"Come on, were just having some fun here," Bruno said, then added in faux thoughtfulness, "At your expense." Another fit of laughter rose from the group, but soon subsided.

"Alright, I think that's enough of that for one day," Mike said, wiping a non-existent from his eye. "Come on Max, I'll walk you home. See you later, guys." The group of boys nodded in reply, and kept on walking down the street, returning to their boisterous antics.

Mike walked alongside Max on the short journey home, whistling some tune that he may have made up by the sounds of it to Max. "You know, it really is dangerous for a kid like you to be on your own around here," he told his sibling, "You never know what kind of creeps there are hiding around here..."

Max simply nodded, but did not look at Mike, who did not take note of his distant behaviour.

The brothers soon arrived at the Afton residence, knocking twice on the door before a young girl answered it, her small face wearing a scowl.

"There you are!" she pouted. "I've been waiting all day for you to come home! I had to play by myself, and that's no fun!"

"Sorry, Annie," Mike apologised light-heartedly, kicking his shoes off in the hall. "But I'm beat for today. Maybe Max will play with you." Mike walked upstairs, and the sound of the door closing indicated he had no intention of coming back out for most of the rest of the day, leaving Max alone with their younger sister, who looked at him expectantly, not that he minded playing with her.

"Come on, let's play Fredbear and Friends! Daddy got me a new Chica toy today!"

Max smiled. "Sure. I'll get Fredbear and the others from my room."

The two ascended the flight of stairs, with Annabelle taking two at a time, reached the top landing, and entered Annabelle's room full of toys and plushies, and there they spent the remainder of the day.


	21. Chapter 20: Patterns

Jonothan regretted his deal with his parents almost immediately upon setting foot into the pizzeria. No amount of money was worth baby-sitting his sister and her friends at this dreaded place. It was as if he had stepped into a completely different world than the quiet, serene one he had been in mere seconds ago, as the tranquility of the small town of Hurricane was suddenly replaced with nothing but the deafening raucous of a thousand screaming children filled his ears. The teenager's face took on a grim expression, though his little sister seemed unaffected by the sudden change in atmosphere.

"There they are." Georgia pointed out a table among the others where three children sat. One of them, a chubby boy with a red shirt and short brown hair, Josh, seemed to be telling the other two a story, his hands moved animatedly, and the words left his mouth at a rapid speed.

The girl beside him, Sarah, was listening intently, nodding her head and giggling at times. The other girl, May, had her head resting in one hand, and a placid smile on her face. She wore a clean, green shirt with a heart design on it, and a small, yellow rabbit toy lay on the table in front of her.

"Alright, let's just get this over with," Jonothan said. He tucked his green t-shirt into his blue jeans and shoved his hands in his pockets, slouching slightly as he made his way over to the table, his sister bounding ahead of him. As he arrived to the group, they seemed not to notice him, as Josh continued telling his tale, and Sarah continued to listen.

"...So, I told him I didn't have his yo-yo, but he said he saw me take it. I was super sneaky about taking it, so he couldn't have seen me, so I knew that Jimmy must have ratted on me. I told him I saw Jimmy take it, and then-"

"Hi!" Georgia greeted as she plopped down in a vacant chair no the opposite side of the table. "What're you guys talking about?"

Josh stopped mid-sentence, focusing his gaze on Georgia momentarily before shifting it over to Jonothan, whose solemn air looked out of place in the room full of boisterous children. At his sudden halt, the two other girls also drew their attention to the siblings.

"Hi, Georgia!" Sarah greeted with her usual peppiness. "This place is so cool! The robots are so cute, and-look! I got toys of them from the Puppet!" Sarah produced three small figures resembling the bear, chicken and rabbit singing on stage from beneath the table.

"They look...weird." Georgia reached over the table and wrapped her fingers around the small-scale figure of Chica the Chicken, then turned and held it before her, comparing the figure the real model of the character, standing on stage with the others. "Chica used to be fatter...and her beak is different." She tapped a finger against it, and to her surprise, it simply popped from the toy's face and onto the table-top below it. "...Whoops."

Sarah was not phased. "Don't worry! It broke off for me, too! I can just put it back on." She took the figure and it's detached beak from Georgia's extended hand. "Now all I need is Funtime Foxy, but..." Sarah glanced behind her, to the direction of Kids' Cove "She was all ripped up and broken when I went to see her...poor Foxy."

"Hey, Georgia," Josh said almost quietly, leaning over the table. Although his voice was audible to everyone else at the table, it was as low in volume as it could go. "Who's the tall guy sitting next to you?"

"That's my brother, Jonothan," Georgia whispered back in an amused tone. "He's supposed to be minding us."

"Hey," Jonothan greeted with a weak wave of his hand. Josh leaned back in his chair and narrowed his eyes in response.

Georgia crossed her arms and rested on the table as she spoke to her friends. "So, where's Max? Don't tell me he chickened out because of the robots, did he?"

May shook her head, joining in on the group now. "I think he's just late. He told me he was gonna come when he told me about it. I think he's coming with his big brother."

"That might make this thing a bit less excruciating," Jonothan said glumly. As if on cue, the sound of a girl bawling her eyes out made his head hang lower and his shoulders raise. "Isn't Justin supposed to be here as well? I thought the three of us where supposed to take care of you all." The plan for the outing was that that he, Mike, and May's cousin, Justin, would meet at the pizzeria and watch over the children. An idea that was simple and straight-forward in theory, but one that fell apart when put into action.

"He left a while ago," Sarah informed him. "He went to the store to get something."

 _Great,_ Jonothan thought, _Trust Justin to shirk off this job and leave me to deal with the bunch of annoying kids._ He could only hope that he wasn't left alone with them for too long, in the fear that his sanity would pay the price. He ran a hand through his hair in stressfulness as the younger children kept chatting, anxiously waiting for the show to start.

It was not long before a young woman in a Freddy's uniform approached them, a sizzling pizza held proudly in her hands. "Large pepperoni pizza, extra cheese!" Jonothan noted that her voice was filled with obviously false cheerfulness, but the others simply licked their lips at the sight of the delectable sight.

"That'll be 20 dollars!" She looked expectantly at Jonothan, who was caught off guard by the fee being directed at him. Of course Justin would leave him with the bill.

"Oh, uh..." He reached into his pocket and fished around for a 20 dollar note that his parents had supplied him with to pay for food, and handed it over to the girl awkwardly.

"Thank you! The show will be starting soon!" She turned around, her ponytail whipping in the air, and walk away.

"So, anyway, like I was saying, I told Harry I saw Jimmy take his yo-yo, and he just blamed me on it, but he didn't believe me, and then he got all mad, and he _jumped_ on me, like that-" Josh suddenly lunged forward, slamming into the table with inadvertent force, knocking the table onto its side legs, creating a slope on its surface. May let out a yelp and grabbed her Spring Bonnie plushie from the table with surprisingly quick reflexes, but the other objects could not escape, and tumbled down in an avalanche. Sarah's toy figures fell to the floor in disarray, and the still steaming hot slices of pizza, most of which had been devoured by the children, fell onto Jonothan's leg as he tried to scoot away.

"Fuck!" Jonothan jumped to his feet in reaction to the sudden heat that made now made his leg throb in pain. The legs and crotch of his trousers were stained with cheese and grease from the pizza. His outburst attracted odd looks from some of the parents and other children around him. Georgia was stifling a giggle, while May hid her face behind the golden rabbit's fur. Sarah simply looked on in surprise, and Josh smiled sheepishly.

"Now look what you did, you-" Jonothan stopped himself, shutting his eyes tightly and relaxing his body. He let out a forced breath as he opened his eyes again, with a withheld fury in his eyes.

"I'm going to clean up. You four, stay here, and don't even *think* about moving a muscle." The teenager trudged off towards the bathrooms, leaving the group of four alone.

Georgia let out her laughter as soon as she was sure her brother was out of earshot. "Nice one, Joshie! Even I can't get him to get that angry!"

Josh's sheepish smile had been replaced with a smirk. "I guess I'm just great at annoying people." The negative implications of the statement didn't seem to bother him.

"Your brother's kinda grumpy, Georgia," May said, still taken aback by the sudden occurrence, which had roughly jolted her out of her thoughts.

Georgia nodded, her pigtail bouncing up and down as she did so. "Yeah, he's always kinda grumpy and boring like that. Except when I prank him," She added as a second thought, scrunching up her face. "Then he just gets me back every time..."

Suddenly, the lights dimmed, and the stage lit up in an array of colours, and the new, shiny Freddy raised a hand in greeting: "Hello, boys and girls!" His voice sounded similar to the original Freddy's, though the new bear sounded goofier. "I'm Freddy Fazbear, and these are my friends, Bonnie the Bunny, and Chica the Chicken!"

"Howdy, everyone!" Bonnie said, waggling his ears. His voice was notably higher-pitched than the old Bonnie's. "I'm Bonnie, and I'm here to play guitar for all my friends!"

"And I'm Chica!" The chicken's new voice was squeaky and young. "Let's Party!"

While the audience was entranced by the show, they failed to notice the other mascot stalking up to the table at the back of the room, where four children sat by themselves.

"Hello, kids!" A deep voice whispered from behind them, making the four spin around. There, standing behind them, was a large golden bear, standing in the shadows. It barely bore a resemblance to the bear singing on-stage, but it was undeniably the star of the show himself.

"Is that...Freddy?" Sarah asked the other children at the table.

"I think that's the old one," Georgia replied. "Come on, let's go talk to him." She hopped up from her seat and walked towards the patiently waiting bear. The other children followed suit, with May at the end, clutching her Spring Bonnie plushie.

"Heya, kids! Enjoying the show?" The bear inquired once the party was where it wanted it to be.

The children nodded, apart from Josh. "Who are you? You don't look like Freddy."

The bear chuckled, yet it still kept its voice down. "I'm Fredbear, silly! Don't'cha remember me?"

"Oh, yeah. You were from the old Freddy's, right?" Georgia recalled.

"That's right! But, listen..." Fredbear leaned in closer to the children, who subconsciously did the same. "I've got something really cool to show you! Wanna know what it is?"

"Yeah!" Sarah answered enthusiastically.

"Okay, but you gotta be quiet!" Fredbear brought a large finger to his smiling mouth. "This is only for good kids like you! It's a secret!"

"W-wait," May said hesitantly. "Georgia's brother told us not to go anywhere. What happens if he finds out we're gone?"

Georgia tisked. "Who cares? I wanna see what Fredbear wants to show us. He won't be that mad if he finds out, anyway."

"Well, follow me, then!" The bear lead the children up to the exit of the Dining Area, along the wall, going unnoticed by the crowd, who seemed to be hypnotised by the ongoing show.

They came to the dimly lit, but lit nonetheless, hallway leading from the Dining Room to the bathrooms, with a closed door at the other end. Fredbear kept his back to them, and walked stiffly onward. The children simply followed like sheep, wondering where the bear could be leading them. To their surprise, he stopped at he metal door.

"It's in here, kids! But you gotta be quiet!"

"What is this thing you're showing us, Fredbear?" Georgia asked, tilting her head slightly. "That door looks kinda...scary..."

"If I told you, then that'd ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?" Fredbear chuckled. He pushed the door open slighly, emitting a creaking noise as he did. "Come on in, then!"

They filed in through the meager gap, one at a time. First Sarah, the Josh, then May, and then a sceptical, yet curious Georgia. And, one at a time, they were greeted with the same sight.

They were in a cramped room, inhabited by the remains of the four original animatronics, who lay in tatters on the checkered floor.

"W-what the..." Josh was the first to speak, and, subsequently, the first to be stabbed by the blade clutched in Fredbear's yellow paws. The blade pierced the back of his neck, and he fell face-forward onto the ground.

The three remaining children stood still for a moment, shocked by the scene of their friend lying on the ground, blood pouring from his neck. It had come out of nowhere, and their minds were overloaded now, being forced to work faster than they were supposed to. Then, as Sarah cried out and fell to floor next to Josh, with the same wounds in her back, the remaining girls took action, resorting to their basic fight-or-flight instinct. May screamed and dropped her Spring Bonnie plushie to the ground, but was grabbed by the back of her collar by the sinister bear. Georgia began flailing and thrashing around, kicking and hitting the foot of the man.

" _Let her go!_ " She cried through her tears. The man wordlessly kicked her away and swiftly slit May's neck, throwing her body on the floor next to the others. His lips turned into a slight smile through the mask as he looked over to Georgia's shaking form, whimpering on the ground. As he lowered his knife, the pigtailed girl made for the door, catching the man off guard. For a brief moment, she relished in her success, as she busted he door open, seeing the hallway before her, and walking out of the bathroom, Jonothan, wearing a bewildered expression.

"Jono-!" Her pleas were muffled as a yellow hand covered her mouth, and dragged her back into the room.

"H-hey!" Jonothan ran to the door, but was stopped by the suit of Fredbear, containing the murderer in place of its endoskeleton and wires. Jonothan came to a stop, before the unexpected sight, and was grabbed by the man in the suit, who smothered him with the suit's fuzzy paw, and dragged him into the room, from which he would not return.

Some minutes later, William Afton stepped out of the room, brushing his dark hair back along his head. His face conveyed a subtle expression of satisfaction, as he strolled down the hallway, through the darkened Dining Area, where nothing seemed amiss, and out the door.

* * *

Max hesitantly opened the door of the pizzeria and stepped inside, and was soon followed by his brother, who was much more carefree about it all. Both pairs of eyes scanned the Dinging Area, finding nothing.

"I don't see them," Mike said with an arched brow. "We were supposed to meet here at 3. What time is it now?"

Max squinted at his watch through the darkness, holding the plushie Fredbear in his other hand as he did so. "Half-past-three."

Mike grunted. "They must be somewhere else. You go look for them, I'll keep a table for us here." Mike sat at a vacant table, being careful to avoid standing on the slices of pizza that littered the floor.

Max sighed at having to navigate the pizzeria alone, though he didn't ask his brother to come with him; it would only earn him more teasing for being a baby. As he walked, he passed the Prize Corner, the home of the Puppet. Max stopped thoughtfully, and fished out a string of tickets he had been saving up, and hoped to spend on something in the Prize Corner. He surveyed the shelves, looking for something he liked, but that he could also afford. He settled on a Fazbear-brand yo-yo, with the new Bonnie on one side, and the new Freddy on the other.

Max reluctantly pushed the button on top of the music box, bracing himself for what was to come. The Puppet sprung from withing, that permanent smile on its face. It stared at him with those empty eyes for a moment, but then two small dots of light appeared in their centre. Max did not know they could do that, though he rationalised it as a new addition.

"U-um, a yo-yo, p-please," he stuttered. He fed the correct amount of tickets into the slot in the music box, which made the wires connected to the Puppet's limbs begin to move and constrict. It nodded slowly, and its spindly arm rose unnaturally, pulled upwards by the string, and its three fingers wrapped around the boy's desired gift. The wires on its arm loosened, and pulled, causing it to extend its arm to the boy.

"Th-thank you." Max looked up at its pale face, and noticed that the lights had vanished, leaving only darkness in the mask. And then, it descended back into its box.

Max tucked the yo-yo into his pocket, and headed out into the hallway with the intent of searching for his friends. He stopped, clutching Fredbear tight to him.

There at the end of the hallway, the metal door was open, and peeking out from it was Fredbear. The real one: the one that Max knew had been scrapped. In his clutches was a teenage boy in a green shirt, around 14 years of age. Max recognised him as Georgia's brother. He struggled and kicked as Fredbear dragged him into the room. Neither of them had noticed him. He simply stood there, mouth agape, eyes widened. He began to cry.

" _Don't worry,_ " a voice said to him. He looked around wildly in fear. The voice sounded as if it had come from right next to him, though he could see no one. " _I am here with you. I am your friend."_

Max broke out in tears, bawling. He ran from the hallway, over to his brother, earning looks from the audience of the show.

"Max?" Mike got up from his seat at the table calmly. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"F-Fred-Fredbear..."

"Fredbear?" Mike looked down to the golden teddy in Max's hands. "What about Fredbear?"

"H-he-!" Max sniveled, and shook his head, shutting his eyes tightly. "I want t-to go home!"

"Home? Max, we just got here. Look, where are the others?"

Max shook his head again. "Fr-Fredbear!" That was all he said.

Mike rubbed his forehead in frustration. "You're such a baby sometimes. Look, I'm not gonna deal with you crying all the time we're here. If you're so scared of this place, then we'll just go home."

Max nodded wildly, but continued crying, and followed his exasperated brother out the door, holding the Fredbear plushie to his chest tightly.


	22. Chapter 21: An Alternate Solution

_"Christopher."_

The sound of his name being called softly, yet urgently, was enough to bring Christopher to. His plastic eyes lit up as his robotic body activated, and he sat up from his lying position. He looked wearily around the room; although his physical body was not capable of fatigue, he had grown tired of being jolted awake so often.

The light of his eyes illuminated the room for him, and he immediately noticed that there was something wrong. Blood stains marked the already dirtied floor of the Parts & Service Room, running across its checkered surface in a trail. He faced the room parallel to the one he occupied as he sat, and noticed the empty space in the corner of the room where Michael should have been.

 _"Christopher."_ The voice sounded firmer this time, motivating Christopher to seek out its owner. His head swiveled toward the source of the voice, and hovering behind him, just in front of the door, was Sammy.

"Sammy?" Christopher tried to recall the events of the previous night-had it even been the on previous night that they'd killed those teenagers, or longer? His memory was so blurry.

"Are you still mad at us?" He remembered together the results of he and his friends' killing-spree: Sammy had become almost furious, though they didn't understand why. The four of them had hastily returned to the Parts & Service Room, where Michael eagerly awaited them, unable to shift from his slumped position.

"That doesn't matter now." Sammy spoke in a hushed tone. " _He's here, Christopher. He did it again."_

"Who-our killer?" Christopher slowly rose to his feet, gaining his bearing as he did so.

"Yes. He did it again, he has claimed the lives of five more children." Sammy's voice became faster, more urgent. "You need to help me, Christopher. We need to catch him, we need to _save them."_

"O-okay." Christopher followed Sammy out of the room, still wrapping his head around what he had just been told. He could not think straight. Sammy claimed that their killer was in here with them-which meant that they'd killed five innocent teenagers.

He forced himself not to dwell on that fact. He and his friends had been unfairly killed as well, and so their actions were justified. It was not as if they had done with the sole intent of spilling blood, as their murderer had done.

Sammy led him out into the Main Hallway, which was far from the way he had remembered it the first time he saw it. The sterile atmosphere of the hall had been replaced with something much more foreboding. Everything seemed like some sort of nightmare in this twised version of the pizzeria. The shadows of the hallways threatened to swallow him if he stayed in them for too long. Scraps of paper littered the floor, and the trails of blood continued, leading to the slumped over body of a girl with bright orange pigtails. Her head hung forward, preventing Christopher from seeing her face, but he was not sure that he wanted to. He was not even sure she was entirely real. The sight of the girl's body did not startle him, he found. He did not think anything could shake him from the trance-like state he was in. He only felt compelled to follow Sammy, to find his murderer.

Sammy was still floating onward steadily before him. _"Save them,"_ he repeated. They passed the Main Hall, and entered the Dining Area, where another body laid, a boy in a green shirt and blue jeans. Another trail of blood led up to the puddle he sat in, and on the stage, the new Freddy was covered in it, splotches of blood painting his shiny shell.

 _"Save them."_ Sammy continued to float, and it was then that Christopher could just barely make out the figure of the tall, slim man in the shadows, silently, but quickly, moving towards them.

And then, in the corner of his eye, a glimpse of something golden made him turn his head. There sat a slumped over Fredbear suit, blood stains on its yellow fur, and hollow eyes that stared into his own.

"Michael...?"

* * *

William Afton could not believe what he was seeing. Hiding in the shadows of Kids' Cove, he watched as the Puppet hovered just above the ground, and following obediently behind him was the decaying model of Freddy Fazbear. Their eyes shared the same, empty look, bar the glowing, white dots in the centre.

It defied all that he knew to be true. Not only was the Puppet an inanimate marionette made purely of plastic and cloth, lacking any of the iner workings that would allow it to move, it was floating. Hovering above the ground as it moved. There were no wires nor strings attached to it, it was moving of its own accord, simply disregarding the fundamental laws of the world as it did. Behind it trudged Freddy Fazbear, who had been deactivated and therefore should have been incapable of moving.

And yet, they did anyway. William could not dispute that. It was too real. He recovered from the shock of simply seeing the sight quickly, though he now strived to work out how this was possible. No answer he could give the problem was satisfactory That was. until he heard the voice.

 _"Save them."_

At that moment, it all clicked together for William. It was them. That was the only thing that made sense, after eliminating all other possible solutions. Those children he had killed in back 1983 had come back somehow. They had defied death, and come back for him, to exact their revenge. They must have been... _haunting_ the pizzeria in the bodies of the animatronics. And now, on the night he had killed another five children, they had come to find him. It must have been them who had dragged the bodies of the children into the open.

His mind raced as the implications of such a profound scenario filled his mind. He felt as though his whole world had been thrown into disarray. Ghosts were no longer simply works of fiction, they were a part of the real world, and the line that divided the two had vanished in the span of a minute.

 _"Save them."_

He heard it, clear as day. It rang out in his mind. It occurred to him that this was a new variable in his plan, one that could change everything. They had to be stopped, before they could stop him. Before they could prevent him from seeing the final result of his work.

He armed himself with a hefty wrench from the toolbox he had brought with him to repair Funtime Foxy, and convinced himself that this was what needed to be done.

He readied himself, then took off before he had a chance to back down. He moved quickly toward the bear first, who seemed to be distracted by something off to its side. Before his wrench met its head, he heard it speak.

 _"Michael...?"_

Just as it turned to face him, the wrench collided with its face, creating a small, yet noticeable dent in the animatronic's forehead. It fell to the ground, defeated.

"You can't," William breathed, making sure Freddy didn't try to get back up.

William gave himself no time to rest. He knew that the Puppet would be the real spanner in his works, despite its feeble appearance.

 _"YOU."_

William spun around to face his adversary, wrench raised in defence. As he'd anticipated, the marionette lunged at him, and William smoothly side-stepped the attack. He took his chance and struck the side of the creature's mask, though that did very little. His wrench would do no good when facing an entity that defied all faith he had in logic mere moments ago.

It turned and slashed at him again with its claw-like digits, narrowly missing his throat. He backed away from it as it lunged at him again, boldly proceeding to deliver a swing of the wrench into its face.

In the brief moments he had in between trading blows with the thing, he formulated a plan. It was, admittedly, a half-baked idea, though he could see no other way to stop the spindly puppet that threatened to take his life to make up for the loss of its own.

William took the marionette by surprise, turning and fleeing instead of attacking as the Puppet had expected him to do. The surprise did not halt the Puppet, as it sped up, refusing to relent in its onslaught.

William, too, kept running, seeing that his destination was drawing closer. He reached the Music Box, and flung open its lid, initiating his scheme. He spun around just as the Puppet reached him, arms outstretched. He discarded his wrench, his only weapon, and took a hold of the Puppet by its striped arms, engaging with it. It was likely the most foolhardy thing he could have done at that time, although his sense of reason had been upturned by the revelations of the night.

He wrestled with the creature for a moment, each of them pushing the other, daring to stare into its glowing eyes, which seemed to smolder with rage the longer he stared.

 _"Do you remember me?"_ He could hear the somewhat familiar voice of a boy piercing his thoughts, reverberating in his mind. _"Do you remember killing me?"_

He felt those gleaming eyes boring into his soul, mentally draining him. He began to feel weak, fatigued. He preservered, as he had learnt to do in the past, and fought back, pushing the thing away. With much more effort than what should have been required of a man of his stature against a felt puppet, he pushed the Puppet to the edge of the Music Box, never breaking contact with its eyes as he did so. It tried to slash at him again, missing by inches. With a final shove that expended all of his remaining energy, William pushed the Puppet backwards, causing it to topple into the Music Box. He quickly slammed the lid, just as the Puppet began to rise again, and twisted the crank rapidly, causing the gentle melody of "My Grandfather's Clock" to play, in juxtaposition with its enraged inhabitant.

Despite the rapid beating of his heart against his chest, William laughed. It was such an absurd idea, to trap the creature in its own box, and yet it had actually worked. He wiped the sweat from his brow with a damp handkerchief and reflected on the night's events.

The bodies and blood of the five children he'd killed now laid around the establishment. He would need to dispose of them quickly, and clean the floors in the five hours of his shift he had left.

He set to work immediately, leaving the Prize Corner, and stepping over the deactivated Freddy Fazbear. What was it that the animatronic had said before William had struck him? _""Michael...?""_

William stopped. Michael. Michael? His own son? What did he have to do with this? Why had Freddy Fazbear brought up his own son?

That, William decided, was the least of his concerns. Not only had the existence of ghosts, and by extension, so much more than William could comprehend at that moment, been confirmed, they sought to kill him. He was at a clear disadvantage; they had already lost their lives. There was little else that William could do to stop them, other than temporarily deactivating them. He, on the other hand, had a family, and a life. There was so much that he could lose to them.

He stopped over one of the bodies; a little girl wearing a bright magenta shirt, and a red bow in her shortly cut hair. He picked her body up, and hoisted her over his shoulder. A few feet away sat another body, this time a chubby boy. He collected it as well, and made his way out into the cold night. He dropped the bodies into the garbage skip unceremoniously, and then repeated the process with the other children's bodies. After disposing off them, he washed the floor quickly, yet thoroughly, eager to leave the restaurant as quick as possible in fear that the Puppet may find a way out of its prison, or one of the other malfunctioning animatronics reactivated.

When the floor was almost spotless, and it was as if there had never been anything amiss in the first place, William was content. He packed his tool box without so much as glancing at the wreck of Funtime Foxy, and left the place, leaving the pizzeria unattended.

* * *

Some time later, the Music Box's melody halted, and Sammy burst from within it as soon as possible. His white, piercing eyes searched for any sign of William Afton, and as he'd expected, the coward had fled the scene of the crime, covering up his tracks. The floors were clean, and the children had been removed.

Fortunately, he had reaped their souls while moving them into the other rooms of the pizzeria in an attempt to reveal that man's sins. A failed attempt, but a valiant one, at that. He had failed in killing him in the first chance he had in 12 years, but that didn't matter. The encounter that night proved to him that he would come back, and he would indeed have another chance at freedom.

He needed to be quick; he was not sure how long it would be until another adult arrived and he would be forced to wait for another opportunity. He did not know if he would even get another one.

He started with the three on-stage first. He approached each of them in turn; first the bear, then the rabbit, then the chicken, and interweaved one of the souls collected from the children with one of the robotic bodies. He had experience this time, and was confident that he was capable of properly binding the souls to the animatronics. The effects were not visible immediately, of course, as a soul did not regain consciousness in its new body after being revived immediately-he'd learned that from the previous five souls he'd bound to bodies. Hopefully these five would prove more effective than the others had. He would need to keep a closer eye on them this time, else they cause a blood bath and scare away another relative of his forever.

Two souls remained, as did two of the new, shiny animatronics built for the pizzeria. The first he passed was the short child-like animatronic that dispensed balloons. It was not ideal, but it would serve its purpose as a vessel.

The second, was the mangled wreck of Funtime Foxy, who lay in pieces in Kids' Cove. It was little more than a tangle of wires with a costume head at this point, and it seemed cruel to provide a soul with it as a body. But, there was little else that would do in the pizzeria, and so, he bound the last soul to the mangled Funtime Foxy, and returned to the first bound spirits, who were beginning to awaken for the first time.

The bear was first, as it was before, turning his head from side to side, realising that something was suddenly very wrong.

"Hello," Sammy said, with a friendly wave of his hand. The bear's attention focused in on him, his plastic eyelids widening slightly. "Wh-who...?"

"I know you might be scared right now, but there's no reason to be. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm Sammy. Who are you?"


	23. Chapter 22: Unfamiliar Faces

Jonothan gazed upon his new, plastic hands with pure horror. He moved his fingers haphazardly, and to his dread, the brown fingers that belonged to Freddy complied and did everything he told them to. They were truly his own, and yet they weren't his at all. "Shit," he whispered, "This can't be real. How...how would something like this even happen?" He tore his eyes away from his hands and looked at the Puppet, who claimed to be a boy called Sammy.

"I already told you. I gave you life inside these bodies. You have a second chance like this."

"But why...why turn us into these things?! I don't want to be a fucking...teddy bear!" Jonothan spat, introducing rage to the plastic eyes of the bear.

"There's got to be a way to turn back to normal. This is weird..." Georgia brought a hand up to the glossy, yellow face of the new Chica.

"I'm sorry," Sammy's voice was compassionate, but it carried an underlying tone of finality, "There's no way for you to return to your bodies. But, if you listen to me, we can all-"

"I want to go home..." May sniveled in the form of the blue bunny, standing stiffly with her arms pinned against her sides.

Sammy sighed. "Please, just listen. We need to-"

"This is so dumb!" Josh yelled suddenly, from the foot of the stage. He was the only one who had retained a human appearance, though he was by no means physically human. He inhabited the new balloon vendor, Balloon Boy. "How can we be dead if we're all still here? This is some kind of trick, I know it! I can't be dead..."

Sammy quickly snapped his thin neck to look down at him. "I told you, you _are_ dead. I gave you all knew life by putting your souls in these bodies. All of you, stop complaining and listen to me! The only way we can be free is to get revenge on our murderer. We'll be stuck here as long as he is alive. Now, you-"

"Alive?" Sarah asked, in a pile of endoskeleton parts on the floor. She held up her costumed head, the only part of her tangled, disfigured body that established that the mess of limbs and robotic pieces was intended to be an animatronic fox, and not simply a failed robot. "Does that mean we'll have to kill him? I don't want to kill anyone! I don't like any of this...!"

Jonothan was holding a hand to the side of his face, investigating every inch of it. "There's no way this can be real."

"Why did he kill us?" May's eyelids were tightened in a pleading look. "What did we do to him?"

"Shut up, all of you!" Sammy roared, regretting his outburst as soon as he saw the looks of fear and apprehension on the other children's faces. He needed to keep them on his side. "Sorry. Sorry. Look, I'm angry with all this too, but we can be free, if you all just let me talk." He continued before he could be impeded again, "We *need* to kill our murderer if we ever want peace. I know, it is a horrible thing to do," he held up his hands in defence and looked at each of them in turn, "But we have to do it. Otherwise, we'll be stuck here, like this, forever. I've been here for 12 years now, and if we don't kill him, it could be much longer."

"How do we know you're not lying?" Jonothan took an offensive stance, "You could have killed us, and-and-and turned us into these things, or something. This is all so...wrong."

Sammy simply made a gesture similar to a shrug. "I can't prove it. You'll just have to believe me. And if you don't, well, then you're all going to be here for a very long time."

"Well..." Sarah chimed in, "I don't want to be like this for long. I'm all a mess, and I can't even move. I believe you."

May nodded, with her hands held near her chest. Her head was tilted forward slightly, looking as if she had been scolded."Mm-hmm."

Georgia tilted her head. "How...how would we kill this guy? We're all robots now. Do we have to use a gun or something?"

"I don't even have any fingers," Josh moaned, staring at his ball-like hands, with holes through them to help the animatronic grasp his sign and balloon.

"You don't have to kill him. Just-catch him. Hold him still for a while, and I'll come in a while to kill him. But first," Sammy glanced over to the rectangular windows of the building, where sunlight was quickly spreading over the land, "Everyone needs to get back into position, and not move. Just relax, and let the animtronics do what they want. You two," He looked below him, where Josh was standing, and Sarah rested, tangled up in herself, "Get back into Balloon Boy's and Funtime Foxy's places. Okay? Okay." Without another word, Sammy floated over to the Prize Corner, and buried himself within his box, closing the lid as he got in.

The five children remained in their places, equally dazed by the events.

"So," Jonothan said, breaking the silence, "I guess we do what he says. We don't really have another option, do we?"

"This is so crappy," Josh snarled, despite the childish grin on his face, "We're just stuck here now, and I don't even have any fingers, and I look so dumb!"

"And we could be dead," Georgia added in an uncharacteristically serious voice which silenced Josh.

"I think he wants to help us, I don't think he's lying," Sarah said. Her optimism found a way to shine through even the darkest and most twisted situations, and she could only hope the others would try to remain positive as well.

At that moment, they heard a key turning in the double doors of the pizzeria's entrance. Following the unlocking of the building, a reasonable looking man in a suit and tie stepped inside, and did not heed the strange positions of the animatronics. There was a certain elegance in the way he walked, one foot after another in a quick, automatic rhythm. His stride did not falter even when he noticed the animatronics gathered around the stage, staring directly at him, and he disappeared down into the Main Hall.

"Maybe you should get back to where you're supposed to be," Georgia said to Josh and Sarah, "People will probably get freaked out if see us standing around like this."

Sarah nodded and began dragging her way along the ground with much bother, while Josh angrily toddled back into the Game Area. More employees filed in over time, one of them placing Bonnie's guitar, which had fallen shortly after May had come to, back in May's hands, who obediently stayed perfectly still.

Soon enough, the pizzeria opened to the public, and the show started. The lights shone on each of the animatronics, and Freddy's voice rang out, and Jonothan wished he could simply disappear. Every child in the proximity was staring at him; yet he knew it wasn't him they were really looking at. He made no effort to fight the animatronic's programming, and neither did May. Georgia resisted it, mostly as a test to prove to herself that she could, but the show went smoothly, and the audience were none the wiser.

Josh was the most troublesome. He denied any children of balloons, and bumped into them in a not-so subtle manner, resulting in many of them running off to tell their parents of his odd behaviour, not that it had any impact on his reckless behaviour. It had not fully occured to him that as he took on the form of the balloon vendor, he would also have to take on his role.

The younger children who stormed Kid's Cove had claimed Sarah for their own, ripping her apart limb-from-limb, and tossing her body around the room with glee. Sarah found that she could feel no pain in this state, but the hundreds of tiny, grubby hands clawing at her viciously hurt was a close substitute. She wriggled and squirmed, which only fueled them in their frenzy. She was helpless.

The day dragged on; it was tedious and tiring to the children, but a day they would not forget. And as the children left the pizzeria, with satisfied grins plastered on their faces, they wished that they could leave as carefree as them.

Soon, night fell again, and the five were alone in the darkness.

"That was the worst day of my life," Jonothan said with heavy antipathy. His arms hung loosely and he almost slouched if not for his rigid, metal spine.

Georgia stepped from her position on-stage, and stumbled slightly, unused to her body's shape. Her three-toed feet provided little balance, and the beak that was attached to her face wobbled with every move she took, a reminder that she was no longer herself. "Man, that was weird. I was moving without telling myself what to do."

"I don't think it was that bad," May said in a mild voice, "At least we didn't have to do anything. But I still don't like any of this." While Jonothan mimicked Georgia and stepped off the stage, May stayed put, guitar still in hand.

"So, what do we do now? Where's Sammy?" Georgia questioned.

Jonothan glared at her. "You're taking this very lightly. You do remember that we're dead, right? _Dead._ And, not only are we fucking dead, we look like some kid's dolls. We might never see Mom or Dad again! We might never see anyone again!"

Georgia simply stared at him distantly. "...Yeah. I know." Her voice came out hollow.

Jonothan shook his head and brought a hand to his forehead, only to pull it away when it reminded him of his current form. "Damn." He stomped off clumsily, each heavy footstep resonating throughout the building.

Georgia watched him go. The two had often fought, naturally, being siblings, but he had never spoken to her with such desperation in his words. Perhaps she wasn't taking this as seriously as she should have been. She had been treating the whole thing as a strange experience, in which she inhabited a strange, new body, but not much more. She had not seriously considered the possibility that this could become her future.

May stepped to the ground awkwardly, mumbling, "I'm gonna go for a walk." Georgia grunted in response.

Josh waddled next to her, and craned what little neck he had to look up to her. "You're Georgia, right?"

"Yeah," Georgia replied, zoning back in on her surroundings.

"Yeah, I thought so. I can't remember who's who here anymore. Anyway, today was pretty funny. I kept bumping into kids, and they just looked at me weird, but they didn't do anything. I can just do whatever I want!"

Georgia raised an eyelid. "You probably shouldn't be doing that kind of stuff. We're the robots now, we have to do what they would do."

"Pfft. Screw that. I wanna do something fun while we're like this, not just stand around all day."

It took Georgia some thought before she replied. "Josh, we could be like this forever. I mean, if that guy, Sammy, was telling the truth, then we have to kill someone to "be free", whatever that means, and we won't even be back to normal then."

Josh shook his head. "Come on, you really believe that guy? This is way too weird and dumb to be true. Hes's probably a...wizard or something, this is probably all just a prank. C'mon, we look so goofy."

"Sure, I guess." Georgia wasn't surprised; it was just the reaction she would have expected from Josh. She looked down surveying her new body. Her skin had been replaced with yellow plastic, and a bib covered her chest. An orange beak obscured her vision slightly, and her body was curvy, smoother and glossier. It was undoubtedly ludicrous, but there was some instinct deep within her, one that Josh likely lacked, that told her that this was no dream, nor a prank, nor a game. It was real.

May stepped down the hallway, caution put into each footstep. Looking around the hall, the pizzeria was much more intimidating at night, when shadows overrode the friendly atmosphere the pizzeria usually housed. Her imagination was not as active that night as it usually was. Her current position was strange enough as it was, that not even her wildest daydreams could top it.

Muttering from the end of the hallway distracted her, halting her in her path. She listened in on the whispers, confirming to herself that she wasn't simply hearing things. A thump on the metal door at the end of it alerted her to another present in the darkness. Another thump made her flinch back, as the door was swung open, and a figure emerged from the open door. It stopped as it saw her, just as she stopped when she saw it. A tall, blue rabbit, that easily towered over her. It's face had been removed completely, leaving two red lights to illuminate the void around it. One of its arms was missing, and wires hung from the socket. It took another step, and May corresponded by taking a step back.

"Hello?"It called, in a surprisingly young-sounding voice. "Who are you?"


	24. Chapter 23: Double Trouble

"Hello?" The other Bonnie called again. May's instinctive response in the face-or lack thereof-of such an intimidating being would be to turn and run for help, which she would readily have done, if weren't for the fact that it was trying to communicate with her, to engage her in a conversation. That was something only humans did.

Gathering her courage, what little of it she had, she stood her ground. "Uh...I, uh..."

The other Bonnie tilted its empty head sceptically, the ears on top of it flopping slightly. If it could squint, it would have. "Who are you?"

"I'm, uh...my name is May," May said. She gave a slight wave of her hand, a formality that she hoped would dissuade the other Bonnie from becoming a threat.

"Oh." The other Bonnie pulled its head back slightly, and approached her. Each step was clunky, and there was no discernible rhythm between them. "I'm Jack. Are you, uh..." Now that Jack was closer to her, the size difference was much more noticeable. He towered over her by about two feet, and she barely reached his chin. She could feel his red eyes scanning her face, "One of those...teenagers...?"

"Um...no."

"Oh. Then...who are you? I mean, how did you get like...this?"

"W-well, I don't really remember that well, but...I was here, with my friends, and then, Fredbear came and said he wanted to show us something. So we followed him into that room, over there," May pointed past Jack, to the room past the metal door. Jack swiveled his head around to look at the door, then turned back to May, "And then he...had a knife, and..." May did not feel that she could continue, though judging by Jack's reaction to her tale, she didn't need to.

"Dang. So you're like us, then. That...piece of crap." Jack's metallic hand clenched into a fist, and his head ducked down to the side slightly with surprising fluidity, shifting his focus from May to his own anger. "He killed us as well, the same way. He made us like this." He made a sweeping motion over his blue body.

"Oh. Well, sorry," May condoled. She tightened up again and took a subtle step backwards at the mention of murder; it was never a good sign in an attempt to make peace with a potentially dangerous stranger.

"Why are you sorry? You got killed too," Jack pointed out.

"Oh," May said, "Right. I'm...dead." A sense of bleakness overcame her, and she felt her body involuntarily release itself from its rigid posture.

"Yeah." Jack kept his eyes on her, perhaps unsure of her emotional state. His concern didn't last long, as a blinking light in the corner of the shadowed hallway caught his eye. Without a word, he passed May to get a better look at the source of the distraction, and an oscillating security camera came into view, silently spying on the two.

"Someone's watching us," Jack growled, turning away from the camera. It had shown him what he needed to know. He began stalking back down the hallway again in that same uneven pace, although this time, they came with purpose.

"Huh?" May asked, tracking him with her eyes, but staying in her place.

Jack neglected her question and turned into the hallway connected to the Main Hall, only to be halted in his path by another blinding beam of light. He grunted, turning his head slightly, but refused to shield his eyes and show to his unseen foe weakness. He continued on down the hallway, keeping his head down, before taking a step into the nearest Party Room on his right. The room was very different than the one he'd been in when he'd killed that girl. Far from the pristine condition it was in on that night, the room now showed signs of use: dirt on the walls, floating balloons tied to the tables, and party hats of various colours were lined up carefully along them. The sterile atmosphere of the previous room was gone. It was, ironically, a more familiar and inviting room than the previous one he'd been in.

He stuck his head out of the doorway, where the flashlight illuminated May, standing still, dazed. "Hey," he called, waving her over to him from the Party Room. She turned toward the sound of his voice, and walked toward him blindly, seeing only his basic outline through the glow of the flashlight.

The discombobulation faded almost immediately upon escaping the light's reach. "My head hurts..." May groaned.

"Yeah," Jack said simply. The light flickered off, and he peered out to the end of the hallway. Sure enough, there sat a night guard, with a stubble-covered face and a shaved head, sitting behind a desk and looking up from his monitor screen nervously every now and then to check the hallway. And with that, Jack found a new outlet for his anger.

He turned back to May, with a freshly lit fire in his eyes. "Did you see what he looked like?"

"Huh?"

"Your killer," Jack insisted impatiently, " _Our_ killer. Did you see what he looked like?"

"Oh, uh..." May looked back through her blurry memories, hoping to find a glimpse of a face, or a telling detail about the man in the Fredbear suit's identity. "No. He was wearing the mask the whole time. Sorry"

"Alright," Jack said, to May's surprise. She had taken him for a rather cold person, and expected him to become angry at her when she couldn't tell him what the murderer looked like.

Jack exited the room, and seconds later, the night guard notice him, as he was expecting. He kept his head down again, willing himself onward through his disconcertion, each step becoming more of a challenge, until he sensed a gap in the wall, and stepped into it. His vision cleared again, and the fog that covered his mind vanished. He spotted the vent, down near the bottom of the wall, and lowered himself to it. His ears poked through, and he forced his head through as well. It would certainly be a tight fit, but he was confident he could make it.

He pushed himself in further with his legs, just barely getting his shoulders through before realising that he would need his arm to be extended in front of him to crawl through. He groaned aloud and scooted back out in defeat, knocking on the metal interior of the vent noisily as he did so.

As he returned to the room, he found May standing just beside the Party Room doorway, spectating the scene curiously. Her hands were brought together in a childlike fashion as she looked down at Jack. "Um, what are you doing?"

Jack lifted himself to his feet from his crouched position to retain his dignity in front of the other child. "I can't get to that guy out there through that hallway, since he has that dumb light, so I'm going through this way instead."

May did not look any less puzzled. "Why do you want to get him?"

Jack shook his head in exasperation, and stared at her critically. "To kill him. He could be our killer, and if we ever want to get out of this crappy prison, we have to kill our killer."

"Oh." May said dumbly. The two looked at each other for a moment, Jack with a questioning stare, and May with an apprehensive one, until Jack crouched down again, attempting to fit himself through the vent.

"You are a kid, right?" May asked suddenly, breaking Jack's concentration.

His head snapped around to look at her, as if offended. "Yes."

"You don't sound like one..." May said quietly, fearing to meet Jack's gaze as she spoke.

Jack shook his head. "Whatever. Are you gonna help me, or what?"

"Um," May shifted around, "I don't really wanna kill anyone..."

Jack imitated a shrug with his single arm, and resumed his attempt to find an alternate way to make it to the office. May simply stood and watched him, unsure of what exactly she should be doing.

Putting his arm in first this time, Jack poked his head into the musty vent, and clawed and pushed himself further into the vent. His shoulders fit through, and he wiggled and squirmed around so that his torso fit. And then, with one last push from his legs, he had successfully entered the vent.

Inside, his red eyes reflected against the steel, and he could barely make out its twist and turns. He pulled himself forward with his arm, making gradual process toward the end of the vent. He reached it, turned his body so that it curved around the 90 degree angle it made. He crawled faster now, seeing the light from the office just up ahead. He crawled at a furious rate, his objective so close now. Once he reached the opening of the vent, the guard would be too startled by his appearance to fight back. Then, a blinding light stopped him in his tracks. It was practically an inch away from his face, and it overcame his senses, repelling him from his oh-so close destination. He covered his eyes, and the light switched off after longer than what was necessary.

The obstacle only served to spur him on, as he clawed at the bottom of the vent now, eager to retribute the anguish the guard had caused him, regardless of whether he was responsible for his death or not. He reached the exit, and peered out from it, up to the guard, who was staring intently at the monitor on his desk.

He swiftly launched himself from the vent, landing on the ground with a thud. The guard yelped out in surprise, but before he could protect himself, Jack jumped to his feet and lunged at the guard. He fought back boldly with a blow from his flashlight, but the impact irritated the already enraged boy. He grabbed onto the guard's face, shoving his thumb under the top of his mouth, and wrapping his fingers around his skull. The guard flailed around, emitting a gurgling noise, informing Jack that he was achieving what he wanted to. He pushed the guard's head further onto the ground while clenching his fist, and felt the pressure rising. It was going to give.

Another slam against the ground was the finishing blow, crushing the guard's skull beneath his fingers. Jack slid them out from the mess and wiped his hand on his the blue fur of his costume. He turned to exit, reasonably satisfied with the results, and saw May, quaking in fear in the entrance to the office. She'd seen it all happen.

Jack met her eyes with little interest. "It wasn't him."

With that, May fled the scene, going as fast as her robotic legs would carry her. Jack was slightly taken aback, though he rationalised that she had probably never seen anyone being killed before.

Making to go after her to calm her down, Jack took a final look at the body lying on the floor, before shaking his doubts, turning back around and exiting the office in pursuit of May.


	25. Chapter 24: New & Shiny

Thoughts flowed into Lilly's mind. That was the best way to describe it. There was no singular train of thought running through her conscience. Rather, simple thoughts and observations filled her mind, none of which she found worthwhile pondering. She had only "awoken" this way once, on the night that they'd killed that group of teenagers, yet the sensation seemed familiar to her already. She simply sat in place for a moment, unwilling to move, or do anything for that matter. It was unlikely that her actions would change anything, anyway. After killing a whole group of people they'd deemed guilty, she and her friends were still trapped here.

She would gladly have stayed in that position forever, if it weren't for the fact that Christopher had also now woken up. He sat up and stared into the darkness on the other side of the room for a moment, unaware that she was watching. He grunted and slowly rose to his feet with some difficulty, and turned to go through the door. It was at that point that he noticed Lilly's sunken eyes staring up at him from their sockets.

"Hey." He stared down at her with questioning eyes. "Are you awake?"

"Yes."

Christopher nodded, looking to the door of the Parts & Service room now. "Something happened last night," he said, with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

Lilly simply looked up at him blankly, still sitting. "Yes, we killed those people who came in. Don't you remember?"

Christopher shook his head contendingly. "No, no, that was the night before last night. Last night, Sammy woke me up, He said that our killer was here, and that he killed more kids. Everything's kind of fuzzy after that, but I remember that I saw Michael, and then I got surprised by something else and I...don't remember anything else."

"Our killer?" Lilly asked, suddenly snapping from her dreary composition. She pushed her back up against the wall and used it to push herself to her feet. "He's here? Did you see him?"

"No, I already told you, I don't remember much else. I didn't see him."

Lilly huffed. "We still don't even know what he looks like. How are we supposed to find him?"

"If he came here last night, then he's probably going to come back again soon," Christopher assured passingly as he opened the door and stepped into the hallway. "Anyway, aren't you worried that Michael is missing? And Jack?"

"What?"

Lilly could find neither Jack nor Michael in the room, and the empty spaces where'd they'd sat before proved their absence. "But...Michael can't even move! How could he be missing? Do you think Jack took him somewhere?"

"I don't know. Like I said, I saw Michael last night. He must be out here somewhere. Jack probably is too."

Lilly followed Christopher with a twinge of curiosity among the sea of bleakness that consumed her. The hallway stretched forward before her, and with a heavy sigh, she began walking through it, to the other end: the Dining Area, where she'd killed that boy.

A illumination from somewhere past the doorway of the Dining Area caught her, and Christopher, off guard. They'd forgotten that they might be sharing the building with a living human.

"What should we do?" Lilly asked in a somewhat nonchalant voice. She'd already come up with an answer, but she needed concurrence from Christopher before she acted on it.

Christopher looked at her, knowing full well that the two would have come to the same conclusion. "We've already killed other people. If whoever's in there tries to get in our way, then we'll just do the same to him."

Nodding, Lilly lagged slightly behind as Christopher made his presence known by boldly stomping the ground with each step he took towards the doorway. The light flickered off in the Dining Area, making Christopher pause shortly between footsteps, and when he was back in motion, his feet did not land quite as heavily.

The pair peered into the darkness of the Dining Area, and were surprised to find it quite alive, but not with life. Whirring and voices speaking to each other filled their ears, and the glow of lights from eyes of animatronics could be seen.

"Hello?" Christopher called out. It was more of a method to catch the others' attention than a question or a greeting. "Who are you all?" He walked closer to the middle of the room, and Lilly followed. She could feel eyes all around on her and Christopher. She could make out some of them now; they were the new animatronics, the shiny, refurbished ones they'd seen standing on stage, as well as two she hadn't seen before.

"Who're _you?"_ A round boy-like robot holding a balloon demanded from a few feet away. He stepped closer to see them, and did a double take as he did. "Woah."

"Josh? Who is that?" The new Chica appeared beside them, also flinching slightly as Christopher and Lilly came into view.

"Hey, wait," Christopher bowed his head slightly and stared the childish animatronic down, "How are you able to talk? Who are you?"

"I asked you first," he said back, in a daring tone. "Why do you want to know who I am, huh? Who are you?"

Christopher's head receded with coldness and his eyelids narrowed. "I'm Chris. This is Lilly. Now, tell me who * _you*_ are."

"Why?" The child crossed his arms. "I still don't know who you are."

Christopher growled. "I just _told you, I-"_

"What's going on?" A brown bear with rosy cheeks stepped into the inevitable argument that was sure to arise if the two were let to continue their discussion. He raised an eyelid with a glance to the withered down bear and chicken animatronics. "Who are you?" He asked in a boorish voice that did not reflect his appearance.

"That's what I was asking them," the round boy interjected.

Lilly sighed, cutting Christopher off before he could angrily reply to him. "My name is Lilly, and this is Chris. We're not really Freddy and Chica, we just look like them because we were killed." Upon explaining themselves to the three strangers around them, now with a puzzled looking wiry mess of a fox joining the crowd of shiny animatronics, and asking "What's going on?" (to which she was ignored), Lilly recalled Christopher telling her that their killer had supposedly killed more people. "Are you...the same?"

"Yeah," the new Chica said, "I'm Georgia. We're kids, too, but I think we were killed as well."

"I'm Sarah!" The contorted fox chirped despite the grim words Georgia had just spoken.

"Wait," the new Freddy interrupted, shaking his head in a disgruntled fashion, "How many times has this shit happened? Do you know that kid, Sammy?"

"Oh, you've met Sammy," Christopher said, "Do you know where he is now? We need to talk to him."

"No," he replied flatly with an air of potential enmity, "I don't."

"If you don't mind me asking," Sarah piped up, "Why do you look so old and creepy?"

"You're, like, the old Freddy and Chica, right?" Georgia folded her arms as she awaited a response.

Lilly nodded. "We were killed when the old pizzeria was opened. Then they probably made new characters to replace us. We just woke up like this a few days ago. Um, by the way," she shuffled slightly and turned her gaze down slightly, appearing sheepish, "Do you know what year it is? How long have you all been here?"

"Jesus Christ," the new Freddy muttered, rolling his eyes and throwing his head back.

"Shut up, Jonothan," Georgia snapped at the bear, who did not change his stance, "Anyway, it's 1987. How long have you guys been here?"

"We were only killed yesterday," Sarah said quietly.

"How do you not know the year?" The short animatronic butted in.

"Because we've been dead and they don't have calendars for dead people," Christopher snapped defensively, bearing his teeth. His intimidating stance had no effect, as the boyish animatronic simply stared him right back in the eye.

"We were killed in 1983," Lilly told Georgia and Sarah, nudging Christopher roughly enough to pull him out of his fray with the child, "And I don't think we were used that long after we were killed, so we've just been kind of knocked out since then."

"Wow," Sarah said with raised eyelids. She didn't further the conversation, nor did Georgia, put off by the answer.

Fortunately for Lilly, before the atmosphere began to grow tense again, the thunder of metal rapidly hitting off the surface of the shiny floor became audible, and Samantha bolted into the room, obliviously reigniting the tumult that had begun to deteriorate.

"Hello? Where is everybody?" She did a quick search around the room before the spotting Lilly and Christopher, and began towards them before noticing the other four around them.

"How many of you are there?!" Jonothan burst out, targeting his frustration at the two dilapidated animatronics. "Just how many kids have been killed and turned into fucking robots in this place?!"

"Lilly, Chris, who are these guys?" Samantha joined her friends side, eyeing the group of shiny robots, particularly Jonothan.

Lilly sighed again. "This is Sam, she's our other friend. Sam, these are kids like us. They were killed as well."

Samantha's eyes flicked between the new faces bemusedly, as if suspecting that she was the victim of a prank. "More kids? When did this happen?"

"Fuck this," Jonothan shook his head exasperatedly, "I'm looking for a way out of this shithole." With that, he trudged off into the Main Hall before any of the others could stop him, not that any of them would have if they could.


	26. Chapter 25: Age Gap

A hollow thump from the corner of the room signaled the forthcoming of another entity in their midst. The appearance of Sammy soon after was expected by the three children who had grown used to his sudden arrivals, but the same could not be said for him. He stopped as he came into view, looking distastefully at them. "Oh. You're here."

"Sammy, what's going on here? Who're these guys?" Samantha demanded immediately. Sammy sighed in response, floating over to the side of the chubby, round boy, who was closest to him. The boy stepped away from him as he did.

"These are the other victims of our killer. He killed again last night, and I gave them life in these bodies as I did with you. Thanks for helping with that, Christopher, by the way." He turned his attention to the boy, startled at being called out. "You did a great job of getting deactivated by him."

"It wasn't my fault!" Christopher replied, suddenly defensive, despite only now remembering that was how the night had ended for him. "He came out of nowhere! Besides, I saw Michael as well, and I was trying to talk to him."

"Michael?" Sammy questioned. "You saw Michael out here? Are you sure?"

"Well, it looked like Fredbear but he was sitting down and didn't look so good, so I'm pretty sure it was him."

"Who's Michael?" Georgia interrupted, lost in the conversation between the two.

"My brother," Lilly said. "He looks like Fredbear, but he can't move. Sammy did something wrong when he brought him back to life." She shot a look at Sammy, who picked up on the slight hint of accusation in her tone.

"That was an accident," he said quickly. "And it was my first time doing something like that. But that's not the point. Where's Michael now? And Jack? Are they in the Parts room?"

Christopher shook his head. "I came out here to look for them and then we met these guys."

"How many of you are there?" The chubby boy asked disgruntedly.

The comment was enough to rile Christopher up from the passive state he was in. "You know, you never told us your name either."

"Josh," he snorted, staring into Christopher's eyes in defiance.

"Was Michael able to move that night when you murdered that group of innocent people?" Sammy said. The question was aimed at Lilly in response to her remark about Sammy's error, adding to the already high tension between the group.

"No," Lilly answered simply.

"Wait, you killed someone?" Sarah asked. She, along with Josh and Georgia, was struggling to keep up with the discussion.

"Oh, yes," Sammy said quickly, jumping at the chance to emphasise, the children possessing the older models' ruthlessness "Five innocent teenagers. They didn't even work here, and they still killed them."

"They could have been our killer, though!" Samantha insisted, stepping past Christopher and bumping into him obliviously, "Or, you know, one of them could have been..."

"They...wait. Don't you remember who killed you?" A spark of intrigue lit up in Sammy's eyes.

"No..." Samantha said, her eyes constantly shifting restlessly in their sockets. The other two confirmed it by shaking their heads.

"Why? Do you?" Christopher asked, squinting at Sammy.

"Oh...no. I just thought you all did." He nodded as he said it, as if content with that answer. Christopher, on the other hand, was not.

"But...last night, didn't you see him? You told me he was here."

"I did," Sammy affirmed, "But I didn't actually see him. It was dark, you know. I could just sort of make him out and since there were dead children in the pizzeria, I just sort of guessed that it was him. Anyway," He broke eye contact with Christopher before he could come up with more holes in his statement, "I'm going to kill the guard now. Since it could still be him. Or her. It could have been a her." With that, he had vanished into the darkness of the further parts of the room, the same way Jonothan had previously exited.

"He's acting suspicious," Christopher said. He was, for the most part, ignored, as more important issues sprang up following Sammy's exit.

"Did you really kill people?" Sarah inquired. "I mean...you didn't mean to, right?"

Lilly sighed, preparing to be judged by the other group of children, until Samantha answered the question for her, with a callous, "Yep. There were six of them, I think. We only got five." Lilly shot her daggers, which Samantha was ignorant to.

"We thought they could have been the ones who killed us. The only way we can be free now is to kill our killer," Lilly explained in an attempt to assuage the situation.

"Oh..." Sarah said shortly.

The discomfort among the three children possessing the new animatronics was no evident. There was a distinct questioning or apprehensive look in their eyes. None of them knew how to respond to children, just like them, claiming to have murdered five people. It was almost out of their scope of believability. Almost. Maybe that was what daunted them so much: the fact that despite how horrible it seemed, it wasn't impossible, considering what they'd been through in the past two days.

Just as the atmosphere began to grow so awkward that even Samantha was beginning to pick up on it, someone else entered the room. The quiet sound of footsteps informed them that it was not Sammy who'd entered. Sure enough, May wandered over to them, wringing her hands, and gasped as the older animatronics came into view.

"Oh, there you are, May," Georgia said, eagerly focusing on something else.

May continued to stare at the decayed animatronics. She offered a shaky wave, hoping they were as friendly as the Jack, the other Bonnie-until he killed the night guard, at least. "Hi."

"Hi! I'm Sam," Samantha greeted, walking up to her. Her friendly composure was mostly counter-acted by her intimidating appearance, causing May to shrink back. "I-I'm May..."

Satisfied, Samantha turned to the other new children in her usual over-friendly attitude. "I don't know any of you either. I'm Sam!"

As Samantha introduced herself to the other children, and vice versa (with some reluctance from their end), yet another presence made themselves aware from their clanking footsteps. Jack stomped over to the group.

"Where were you?" Christopher questioned. "And where's Michael?"

"Killing the guard," Jack said passingly. "But I kinda scared that girl that's the new Bonnie." He pointed a thumb at May, who was now sticking very close to her friends. He glanced over to Samantha, who was chatting earnestly to the other shiny animatronics. "Those are the other new guys, right?"

"Yeah, but where's Michael?" Christopher asked again, unwilling to catch Jack up on everything.

"Why would I know?" Jack snapped, irritated at being questioned so suddenly. "He was gone when I woke up."

"Gone?" Lilly said. "He can't even move!"

Jack lifted his shoulder-pieces in an imitation shrug. "He's gotta be around here somewhere. It's not like he could have gone far."

Sammy's reappearance to the Dining Are, accompanied by Jonothan, went unnoticed among the hustle and bustle in the room. "Alright, everyone," he said, just loudly enough to be heard over the others' voices, "The sun's coming up and since the night guard's already dead, everyone should get back to their places. We don't want them to suspect us of killing him." Sammy returned to the Prize Corner, and dropped himself into the open music box, looking out of it expectantly, until the crowd dispersed. The decrepit animatronics trudged back to the Parts & Service Room, slumping down on the floor and against the walls, and the shiny models returned the the stage, where they awaited until the day began anew.


	27. Chapter 26: The Barrier

It was 12 AM on-the-dot the following night that Samantha activated. Golden eyes rolled and flicked around in their sockets relentlessly, as she jumped to her feet. The others were still asleep, vacancy in their twisted faces. She was restless and keen on fulfilling her self-given objective of killing the night guard. That was all she considered as she burst through the metal door. She wasn't certain that there was a new night guard, or that it was even night at all. That didn't matter to her, and none of the others could stop her from doing what she wanted now.

As she flung the door open, one of the first things she noticed was the shiny Chica from the last night standing in the hallway with her. She looked puzzled for some reason.

"A bit noisy, don't you think?" She asked.

Samantha shrugged. "I guess. Are you the only other one up? We can work together to kill the guy!" Samantha approached her, then stopped in the middle of the entrance to the Main Hall, like a deer caught in headlights. Her head flicked to the side to look down the hallway, eyeing the night guard sitting behind the desk. He was preoccupied with something on his monitor, obscuring her view of him. She couldn't see who it was sitting behind that desk, but he didn't seem like a nice person. His posture, his clothes, his unseeable face, there was just something off about him.

Georgia drew back, taking a step away from Samantha, as she continued to stare daggers at the oblivious guard. "Uh, yeah. You can just do that by yourself."

"Why?" Samantha now turned back to Georgia, with a questioning look in her eyes that quickly turned into amusement. "Are you chicken?" She howled at her own joke, her jaw snapping up and down and her head shaking in a bizarre imitation of laughter. Georgia found herself lightly along with her. Even the cheesy joke worked to make her feel slightly more comfortable around the children who had been imprisoned at Freddy's longer, especially after the considerably awkward meet-up the previous night, and Samantha's careless confirmation that she and the others had killed people.

Samantha's fit of laughter came to an abrupt halt, and she was as serious as before again, though she still had that jittery atmosphere about her. "Anyway, come on. This is the only way down to him." Taking the brief laughter they'd shared as concession, Samantha went on ahead, leaving Georgia behind.

"Hey, wait!" Georgia caught up to Samantha, but kept her distance, standing a few feet behind her, at the entrance of the hallway. The wooden door frame acted was a barrier between the two. The other girl snapped her head back. "Huh?"

"You can't just kill that guy! We don't even know who it is. How do you know he's the one who killed you?" She stood still, staring Samantha down with a piercing gaze that she was known for using among her friends when they did something she didn't like.

Now it was Samantha who was puzzled. "But...it could be him! If we kill him, then we'll get to get out of here! We have to try!"

Georgia stood her ground. "Yeah, but if he's not, then you'll just kill some random guy who didn't even do anything. You can't just go around killing people like that."

Then the look of indignation began to grow in Samantha's eyes. A growing intensity in her stare replaced what little culpability Georgia had influenced in her. She turned around to look at her fully, forgetting about the night guard behind her. Her plastic coated teeth snapped together as she closed her mouth. For the first time since she'd woken up, her eyes stopped shifting and were fixed solely on Georgia. "I can do whatever I want now." Her words came out flat and meticulous. Georgia looked up at her, her squinted eyelids portraying vie, but said nothing in response. Although she disagreed strongly with Samantha's plans, she was not stupid, nor reckless. Samantha was a lot bigger than her, and better equipped in a fight, considering her rusty hook and exposed teeth.

The night guard was Samantha's focus once more. She turned her back on Georgia and began towards him quickly, her metallic feet thumping against the floor. Georgia just watched from her spot on the other side of the barrier. There was little she could do without the situation resulting in a fight where she would be torn apart, limb-by-limb.

Samantha kept moving down the hallway, riled up by Georgia's attempt to stop her. She was going to prove that no one could tell her what to do. To whom, exactly, she didn't know.

The night guard lowered his monitor, and before Samantha could go any further, he shone into the hallway with his flashlight. Samantha was once again blinded by the light. It overwhelmed her, hijacked her thoughts. She clutched at her head in agony and clawed at the red fabric. "Stop, _stop it!_ " It took her a minute or so of stumbling around for her to realise that the light had been already been turned off. Her eyes now locked onto the guard again, staring at his monitor, ignoring her. How dare he? Did he not deem her a threat? She got into position to dash forward, before the light stunned her again.

From the far end of the hall, Georgia observed, almost pitying her. She might have felt more sympathy if Samantha's efforts weren't contributing to her attempt to kill the night guard.

She abandoned any hope that Samantha would see the unreason in her plan, and walked back into the Dining Area, planning to talk with some of her friends. It had become tense between them, as the prospect of actually being dead hung just above their heads. They all knew it, but none of them wanted to accept it. Although the levels of unease between them all were high, it was certainly better than being around a potentially psychopathic machine, determined to exact revenge on her killer-even if the victim of her rage wasn't him.

She wondered if all of the others were like that, fueled by hatred to kill innocent people. They had killed a group of teenagers, as Sammy had told them. Even if it was an honest mistake on their part, they'd still went through with it. There had to have been some amount of consideration for what they were doing. They had to have known there was a chance that they would be killing innocent people.

She should have been more shocked by the thought of it, but she wasn't. Considering their current state, and the fact that they'd supposedly been there for four years, Georgia could see why they would resort to such extremes, not that she had any intentions of joining in for the time being.

As she reached the Dining Area, some of the others were moving around, to her relief. Sarah was a few feet away from her, and appeared to be trying to erect herself into a standing position, using her misplaced feet and hands to balance herself.

"Need a little help?" Georgia asked, crossing her arms, somewhat amused.

"Nope...almost got it..." Two of her feet were now touching the floor, and the third was sticking up defiantly.

"You're not gonna be able to walk like that, you know."

"Sure I will!" Sarah protested, now using one of her hands to push the leg to the floor. "I just need to get the hang of it!"

"Or you could just get Jonothan to carry you around," Georgia said with an impish tone.

Sarah shot her a look. "Yeah, right. I can walk around by myself, just watch!" She proceeded to prop herself up unsteadily on her three legs, wobbling slightly before collapsing into a pile again. "Darn..."

Georgia almost laughed at the sight. "C'mon, let's look around some more. There has to be _something_ to do around here other than...killing people."

"Yeah..." Sarah said, "Those other guys are kind of weird. Do you think they really killed someone?"

"Yeah," Georgia said dismally, yet frankly, "I even saw that girl who's Foxy-Sam, I think. She was going to go kill the guy who's watching the place tonight 'cause she said it could be the same guy that killed her. I tried to get to her to stop and all, but she just got angry."

Sarah clawed along the ground with her mismatched limbs, just managing to catch up to Georgia's pace. "I guess they're just really angry..."

"Yeah." Georgia nodded. Then something caught her eye.

At the other side of the Main Hall, by the metal door of the Parts & Service Room, sat a suit. It looked just like the old, tattered Freddy Fazbear that they were used to, only with a grimy, gold coat of fur. Its head hung to one side limply. It looked vacant, as the insides of the suit that could be seen from its open mouth and hollow eyes were a deep, pitch black. It seemed alive, but there were no traces of life in its motionless body.

Sarah seemed to have seen it too. Neither of them spoke, as they were transfixed by the sudden anomaly. They weren't sure what it was about the suit-maybe the memory of death in its face, or the stillness in its form-but they couldn't tear their eyes from it.

Two sparks lit up Fredbear's eyes, and then it was gone. It was as if they'd blinked, and suddenly it wasn't there anymore.

"What...was that?" Sarah worry-filled eyes met Georgia's.

"Fredbear," Georgia replied decisively. Just the sight of the suit filled her with an immeasurable anger. She'd never felt an emotion so raw before, nor such an overwhelming urge to act on it.

She walked forward, toward the doorway to the Main Hall. She was commanding her body to move, but the movement of her legs felt wrong somehow.

"Hey!" Sarah cried, pulling her mangled body up to Georgia. "Where are we going?"

"I don't know." It was half-true; she had only the faintest idea of where exactly she wanted to go. The night guard was focused on the monitor in front of him, and Samantha was still stumbling about, dazed. She took another step, through the doorway.


	28. Chapter 27: The First Step

Samantha didn't notice Georgia making her way up to her, still reeling from the most recent burst of light she'd received from the night guard's flashlight. That suited Georgia; she wasn't looking to strike up another conversation with her right now. All that was on her mind at that moment was the intense feeling of hatred that was boiling up inside her. She needed to unleash that rage somehow, by any means. It was an itch at the back of her mind.

"Hey, Georgia, wait!" Sarah called out again, still valiantly trying to pull herself up to Georgia. Georgia blocked out her voice, and put her focus entirely on the night guard. Sarah's voice seemed to be enough to pull Samantha from her daze, however.

She looked around madly, trying to understand the sudden change of situation Georgia and Sarah had introduced. "What are you doing here?" She asked Georgia bluntly, who was just ahead of her now.

Bothered by the question, but also feeling the need to answer, she turned her head quickly, causing her protruding beak to wobble precariously in front of her. "I'm going to kill that guy," she said, with a dangerous tone to her voice. Her eyes were pitch black, with shining white pupils, and had a wild look in them. "And I'm taking this stupid _beak_ off as well!" She swiftly reached up to the front of her face, grabbing the beak in both hands, and with a sharp tug, it came off in her hands. Her face was now flat and smooth, and all that was left in place of the beak was the gap where the beak attached to, in the shape of an eerie smile. Two rows of small, pointed teeth hid in the darkness behind the mouth. The pleasant vibe of Chica had been washed away, and what was left was something altogether ominous. "That was annoying me."

She disposed of the beak by letting it drop to the floor, then resumed on her way.

"Oh," Samantha said, pleased with the change of events, "So you are going to help me get this guy, then. Great! He's been really annoying me with that light he keeps flashing, and I can't even get close to him! We'll be able to do it together, though." She turned round to Sarah, who had been momentarily startled by Georgia's sudden change in attitude. "What about you? Are you gonna help?"

"Uh," Sarah said, avoiding Samantha's eyes, "I don't really..."

"Come on, Sarah," Georgia urged, "Let's just do this. Aren't you mad about this? Don't you want, you know, revenge? You saw that thing as well, didn't you?"

"I guess..." Sarah was torn. Murder had always been the worst thing a person could do, in her eyes. It was an act worthy of defining a person as inhuman. Nothing could excuse it, no matter how awful a person may be, no matter how heinous an act they might have committed, they didn't deserve to be killed by someone else.

But, then, she couldn't ignore the feeling inside of her. It had been there since she'd awoken as a pile of parts and had to crawl out of Kids' Cove, clueless of where she was, _what_ she was. She'd felt it when Kids' Cove had been stormed by children, who had ripped her apart, threw her around the room carelessly, rendering her helpless. As she pondered on those memories, the feeling arose again. A thirst for justice for what had been done to her and her friends. Even Georgia, one of her closest friends, was telling her to do it. She'd never known Georgia to be wrong about things.

"Okay, I'll do it," she finally replied. "But how are we gonna do this? Are we just gonna go up to him and-"

The light from the other end of the hallway lit up again, engulfing them in light. Georgia instinctively shielded her eyes, which did little to block it out. The light soon flicked back off, and Georgia and Sarah were quick to come to recover from the shock, but Samantha seemed to have taken the brunt of it. Hey eyes were darting around wildly as her head shook back and forth, stepping around in random directions.

"Do you think she's alright?" Sarah looked on at her dazed antics with some concern.

Georgia rapped against the side of Samantha's head in response. "Hey, snap out of it."

It was only a few moments after that that Samantha was alert again. "Alright, alright, what are we gonna do?"

Georgia scanned the hallway, deep in concentration. "Let's get into one of these rooms, first. That way he can't flash us again." In a few swift movements, Georgia entered the Party Room furthest up the hallway, on the right. Samantha came soon after, followed by Sarah, who continued to crawl along the floor with considerable difficulty.

Georgia was already scheming by the time each of them had made it into the refuge of the Party Room. Now that she could think without having the distraction of being watched by the night guard, her mind was working quickly to come up with a solution to the problem.

"There's got to be some other way to get to him without him noticing," she thought aloud.

"Actually," Samantha said, "There's some holes in the walls I saw the other night. You know, like vents. Maybe they can take us to him."

"Well, where are they then?"

Samantha seemed pleased with herself. "One's in the room across from here, and I think there's one here as well."

Georgia nodded. "Alright, that sounds like a good idea. I'll go through the one in here. You two look for the one over there and see if you can get to him through there." At once, Samantha took off in search of the vent, as if she'd only been waiting for Georgia to finish talking before executing the plan. Sarah, as expected, was slower to follow suit, but this time Georgia suspected that her awkward form wasn't entirely to blame for her falling behind.

But that wasn't important now. Once one of them reached and killed the guard, Georgia was sure that Sarah's doubts would be extinguished, and, she hoped, hers would too.

A quick, simple search resulted in the discovery of a rather large, square opening at the bottom of the wall. She was sure she'd be able to fit through it, considering her plastic body's slim shape, but she could only hope that either Sarah or Samantha would be able to fit through the other.

She fit her right arm in first, then used it to pull the rest of her body in. She crouched on her knees, scooting through the vent. It was easy to navigate, despite the complete darkness within. As she crawled through, she felt a turn in the vent, and adjusted herself to continue. She could see it, just up ahead; the exit to the vent. It was mere inches away from her.

She reached the opening of the vent, and peered out through it. There was the guard, staring at the flip-up monitor on his desk. He turned his attention away from it, and picked up his flashlight, and then a flash of light illuminated the hallway. It was just out of Georgia's vision, and she was unable to see if there was even anyone there.

She stared expectantly at the night guard, waiting for just the right moment to catch him off guard. Just looking at his face made her hate him. She was convinced now that he had to be their murderer. She didn't know how, but she knew this man had to have done something wrong.

The guard flipped the monitor back up, when his nonchalant expression became one of confusion. "What the fuck...?" Georgia heard him mutter.

There was a sudden, loud clanging from across the room, and the guard leaned over to his side and pushed a large, red button on the wall. The vent on the other side lit up in correspondence, and Georgia could make out the face of Funtime Foxy.

Overall flustered, the guard flipped back up his monitor, sneaking glances to the vent to his right from every now and then. Georgia saw her opportunity and grasped it. She slid out from the vent, then sprang to her feet. The guard did the same, almost in imitation. The only difference was the terrified expression on his face as he darted around the desk in flight. Georgia had predicted the response, and was already beside him as he began to flee. She leaped at him, in risk of losing her prey, and succeeded in catching him. He was dragged back by the arm by her, yelping in surprise and pain. She had him in her grasp. Now she just wondered how to finish him off.

It was a decision she wouldn't have to make, however. Out of the blue, Sarah lunged from the ceiling, chomping down on the guard's head, killing him in one, swift blow. Georgia let his body drop to the ground in alarm. Punctures on the side of his head indicated where Sarah's teeth had impacted.

Sarah herself was dangling from a metal beam at the top of the office. Her many limbs and endoskeleton parts were wrapped around it, holding the majority of her body in place while her head hung below, its pink muzzle smeared with blood.

"You killed him!" Georgia cried. She'd somewhat intended it to be commendation, but it had come out more like a exclamation of shock.

"Y-yeah..." Sarah said, staring down at the body. Her eyes were glazed over, but then, slowly, the began to light up again. "That...felt kind of good."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I don't feel as bad now like I did before. I feel better!" Georgia couldn't help but notice that the vibrant spark in her eyes that she'd always had was in life was present again.

The two stared down at the body in silence for a moment, looking it over everywhere, other than the glassy, blood-shot eyes.

"So..." Georgia said, beginning to grow uneasy,"How do we know if he's our killer? Should we be in Heaven by now or something?"

Sarah offered little explanation. "I don't know."

Samantha wandered into the office alongside the two, evidently recovering from the guard's flashlight. "Oh, you did it already. Great! Guess it wasn't him, though."

"So I just...killed someone who didn't even do anything?" Sarah asked, feeling queasy. The rewarding feeling of success was quickly leaving her.

"Yeah, probably." Samantha nodded between the slight, spastic twitches of her head, apparently not picking up on Sarah's discomfort.

"He's gotta have done something bad, though," Georgia reasoned, attempting to assuage the situation, "He just looks so _guilty_."

"I don't feel so good anymore..." Sarah moaned.

While Georgia looked at her friend with sympathy and was now regretting planning the death of guard herself, Samantha seemed satisfied with their work. She headed out of the office, looking expectantly at the other girls.

"Come on, stop being so sulky! Let's go get the others. We still need to hide the body."


	29. Chapter 28: Mind Divided

"You killed him," Jonothan repeated. No matter how many times he said the phrase aloud, he couldn't wrap his head around it. There was no way that two little girls like Sarah and Georgia-his own _sister_ -could have murdered anyone, regardless of how distraught they were. They couldn't have perpetrated such an abhorrent crime, he simply refused to accept it. "You-both of you- _killed_ someone."

"Yeah, Jonothan, we get it," Georgia said in a cutting tone, "Look, we didn't mean to, okay?" Sarah, who was laying in place next to her, and beside Samantha, nodded fervently, a hint of desperation in her glowing, golden eyes.

"I didn't mean to hurt him, really! I just...did it without thinking. I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry for," Sammy interjected, his slim body floating into the space between the two. "He deserved it. He was working for them, he was a part of them. This whole company is just as guilty as the one who killed us."

"Can you just shut up?" Jonothan snarled, wide eyed, as he unleashed his pent-up temper, "You're the one who keeps going on about killing people, and now they've actually killed some random guy!"

Sammy seemed to inflate with indignation. He pulled his head back and looked down at Jonothan, whose angry stare didn't falter. "Do you-"

"Anyway," Samantha said, addressing Sammy, who sharply turned his head to look at Samantha with piercing eyes "We need to hide the body now, so no one will find him. That's why we came and got you."

"That's what I was _going_ to say, Samantha," Sammy replied bitingly. His eyes darted over to Jonothan as he continued, "We don't need to hide the body. They'll hide it anyway." He paused, waiting a moment to explain his point. "Remember when you killed those teenagers? Who, by the way, were actually innocent, but you murdered anyway. But, my point is that I didn't go anywhere near those bodies. I left them where they were, after you killed them. They weren't there the night after that. They were moved. Then there was that night guard Jack killed. You saw him, didn't you?" He said to Jonothan. Jonothan didn't answer; he didn't need to confirm that what Sammy said was true.

"Then there were your bodies," he spoke to Sarah and Georgia now as well. "They were moved as well. Eleven deaths happened in this building-twelve now. If the police knew about this, this place would be shut down. But it's not, is it? They don't know about those deaths, because the company is getting rid of the bodies. None of you will get proper funerals, none of your families will know what happened to you, because they hid your bodies. They are all as guilty as the one who killed us in the first place." As Sammy stopped talking, the sense of triumph was emanating from him so strongly that he could have taken a bow.

The others were silent. Georgia and Sarah were not only melancholy from the somewhat shocking revelation Sammy had delivered, but also stricken with guilt at the thought of inflicting such anguish onto someone. Even Samantha seemed to be thinking things over in her head. She hadn't needed a reason for killing employees of the company, as long as they could be her killer, but she hadn't come to terms with the fact that her disappearance would never be explained to her family. It only fueled her desire to kill anyone related to the company that she could get her hands on.

Jonothan simply shook his head, as if repelling the very thought from entering his mind. He stormed off without another word, refusing to give Sammy the satisfaction of hearing him admit to being wrong.

 _I'm not wrong,_ he corrected himself. _I can't be wrong about not killing people._

He felt betrayed. His own sister, a murderer. There was still no way he could comprehend the notion.

He found himself wandering into the Main Hall now, still detached from the world around him. Wrapped up in his own muddled, confused thoughts, he failed to notice Josh standing in front of him-granted, he would barely have been able to see him regardless, considering the height difference between the two. He bumped into him mid-stride, jolting him from his concerns. He looked down with as much of a scowl as he could manage on his new face to the culprit, surprised to find him staring back up.

"Watch where you're going, dummy!" Josh spat at him, staying in place.

"Shut up, kid." Jonothan bypassed him dismissively, trying to regroup his dispersed thoughts.

"Hey! Who're you telling to shut up?! You're the one who bumped into me!" Josh waddled after Jonothan, who was simply trying to ignore him now. He had more pressing thoughts on his mind than a quarrel with an irritating kid. "Stop running away!"

"I'm not running away," Jonothan snapped, spinning around. "I'm trying to get away from you because you're annoying me, and I need to think. Now shut up and go away."

He returned to his thoughts, only to be distracted again. "Hey, wait up! Did you see that guy guy down there? Did you kill him?"

"No," Jonothan replied stiffly, not bothering to turn to face him this time, "I didn't."

Josh was reluctant to release his grip on the matter. "Who did then? Was it one of those old, weird guys?"

"No." He wasn't sure that he could give Josh the answer; not for Josh's sake, but for his own. He didn't think he could openly admit it. He felt his body loosen in defeat. "Georgia, and Sarah. They killed that guy."

"What? That doesn't make sense," Josh said skeptically. "Why would they kill that guy? They don't kill people."

"Yeah. That's what I thought. I don't know..." Jonothan sighed. "They said it was an accident. They seemed pretty sorry for doing it, anyway."

Josh shook his head. "How'd they kill him on accident? Still doesn't make any sense."

"Well that's what happened, alright? If you don't believe me, go ask them yourself. I'm not dealing with you anymore." Jonothan started off down the hallway, uncaring if Josh was had persisted in pursuing him, when the metal door at the end of the hallway flung open, and the withered down suit of Bonnie walked out. It looked around for a moment before spotting Jonothan, and, Jonothan presumed, Josh.

"Hey," Jonothan said slowly, a plan suddenly starting to form in his head, "You're Jack, right?"

Jack didn't reply for a minute, seeming a little taken aback, but then nodded slowly. "Yeah. Who're you, again?"

"Jonothan," Jonothan replied briskly. "You're the one who killed that night guard last night, aren't you? You know, when we met in the hallway and May was running away from you?"

Jack nodded again. "Yeah."

"Why?" Jonothan blurted out. "I mean...why did you kill that night guard?"

The question seemed to catch him off-guard, as he turned his head to the side, questioningly. "Why? 'Cause he could've been the guy who killed us."

"And what if he wasn't? You just killed some random guy who didn't even do anything to you."

Jack pondered that for a moment. "I dunno. I guess I just...don't really care anymore."

"That's kind of messed up." Josh walked up to Jonothan to join the discussion. "How'd you just not care about killin' somebody?"

"I just want to get out of this place. Sammy says the only way to do that is to kill our killer. That's all I care about."

Jonothan found that he could relate. He didn't know just how long the other children had been trapped here, but if their decayed appearance was anything to go by, it was probably a long time. He could imagine that being trapped in a dingy pizzeria for years on end would break a person-especially if they had to perform for kids during the day as well. Jonothan had only done it twice, but it had been almost unbearable. He had to let his body do whatever it wanted, and hearing the cheesy lines the animatronic was programmed to say coming out of his own mouth could have made him cringe.

It was then that he realised: if those children, who had been killed just like he and his sister's friends, had been stuck in the pizzeria for so long who knew how much longer they would have to remain? They'd killed more than a few night guards, and innocent bystanders, for that matter, by the sounds of it, and yet they still hadn't found their killer yet. And what if they didn't? Would they be stuck in the pizzeria, in these plastic tombs, until he died? Did they have to be the ones to kill him? What if he died before they got the chance to?

At that moment, following the train of dismal thoughts, he made a conscious decision. If he ever wanted to escape this place, and move on to Heaven, or wherever he would go after death, he needed to make an effort to kill his murderer. If that meant killing innocent people in the process, then so be it. It was not a decision he liked, nor one he was sure he would be fully committed to, but it was a decision nonetheless.

He nodded, slowly. "You're right."

Josh gazed up to him. "Huh?"

"The only way we have a chance of getting out of here is if we kill the one who killed us. The best way to do that is to kill people who could be him. That's the only way to do it."

"What are you talking about?" Josh crossed his arms and shook his head, clearly displeased. "I'm not gonna just go around killin' everybody."

"I didn't say that," Jonothan corrected sharply, "I meant the only way we have a chance to get out of this shithole is if we do manage to kill him, and since he could be anyone who works here, we should kill any employee we can. We could be stuck here for years if we don't."

Josh mulled it over. "I guess...you're kinda right. I don't wanna be like this for long. I look like such a doofus..."

"Yeah, great," Jack interjected, "But has anyone killed the guard yet?"

"Yeah. Georgia-she's my sister-and another girl called Sarah," Jonothan replied warily.

"Oh," Jack said, seemingly surprised. It was hard to tell from his lack of face and mostly deadpan tone. "Some of you newbies are already starting." He nodded, satisfied.

""Newbies"?" Josh questioned accusingly.

"Yeah. You guys are newbies. You've only been here for a couple days."

"Yeah, well," Josh said, clearly preparing a scathing reply, "At least I still have a face!"

"At least I'm not a runt," Jack replied simply.

"Yeah? Well, at least I don't...have weird rabbit ears!"

Jonothan decided to leave the two to their name-calling and return to the Dining Area. As he entered, a few rays of sunshine were beginning to make their way over the hills, and were chasing away the shadows that inhabited the pizzeria. May and Georgia had already returned to their positions on the stage, and he fulfilled the trio by standing between them, prepared for the incoming onslaught of children that he would, no doubt, be forced to entertain.


	30. Chapter 29: Freddy's Circus

He couldn't escape them. They were everywhere he looked, in every direction he turned his head. Some of them stared back at him, conscious of his awareness of them, with a glint of complacency in their murky eyes. They knew full well that he couldn't do anything to stop them from doing whatever nefarious deed they must have been doing.

Jonothan felt their gloating eyes on him even as he tried to block them out-but how could he? They were sitting at every party table, in plain sight. How had no one else seen them, or noticed their concealed, vile grins? He hadn't noticed it up on the stage, perhaps due to the multi-coloured lights stage shining on his face, or that he'd been more focused on the unfamiliar feeling of his body moving without him giving it directions, but off the stage, down on their level, it was plain to see.

"Freddy!" Another sprightly, young child ran up to him through the already forming crowd of kids around him. He relinquished his control of his own body as he was caught off guard.

"Hey there, everyone!" Freddy's mouth moved in sync with his voice, and his arms moved jerkily. "I hope you're all having a swell day!"

Controlling the animatronic when it was supposed to be deactivated was easy, it was as if Jonothan were simply in his own body. But, during the day, the animatronic's programming kicked in. Jonothan had to fight for control over it, and even when he did come out victorious, he could still feel something in him struggling to move of its own accord.

He came to the conclusion that it would be best to let the robot do what it was supposed to do. He wouldn't have been able to stop those no doubt sinful people regardless of whether he fought or not. He wasn't even sure what it was they'd done, why they looked so evil, but it didn't matter. He'd get his chance when night fell, when he regained full control over this body.

The time between that point in the day and when he, along with May and Georgia by his side, were returned to the Show Stage, while the flocks of children their performance had amassed gradually began to disperse, and children and adults alike left the pizzeria. They were on their own once again.

Jonothan wasted no time in stepping down from the stage, landing on the ground slightly harder than intentional. He took a moment to gain his bearings, then began to make his way to the Main Hall.

"What's the big rush?" Georgia's voice came from behind him, as a similar, softer thud indicated her leaving the stage.

Jonothan sighed. He was hoping to be able to make it to the office without being questioned by the other kids, especially by Georgia. The kids who had been there longer didn't seem to have a problem with killing people.

He turned to face her. "Call me a hypocrite, but I'm going to...well, I decided that maybe you weren't completely wrong about killing that security guard, accident or not."

Georgia was somewhat intrigued, considering his stance on the matter beforehand. "What do you mean?"

"I was thinking about it, last night. If that Sammy kid was telling the truth, then the only way we'll be able to move on, or go to Heaven, or whatever is to kill the guy who killed us, then we have to try. Otherwise, who knows how long we could be stuck here? Look at those old guys, they've been here for years!"

"W-wait," May said, having been listening in on the short conversation, "You *want* to go and kill people now?"

"Oh, come on, May," Georgia said harshly, "Some guy killed us, and now look at us. I'm not gonna look be an *actual chicken* forever, even if I have to kill someone. What about you?"

May whimpered in response, her head drooping to the floor. Georgia felt a twinge of guilt, but she'd known May long enough to know that the only way to convince her of something was to hammer it into her head. She never focused on crucial issues enough to form an opinion or decision.

"Look, think about it May. We just came to Freddy's to have fun, and we didn't even do anything wrong, and then someone *kills* us. We're dead, May. We won't get to see our family again, or Max, or anyone. We're gonna be stuck here unless we do something."

"Okay! Alright..." May shook her her head. She didn't want to hear it, but she had to. Georgia knew that much.

"What's goin' on?" Josh emerged from the darkness of the Game Area as he approached them, half-waddling due to the stiff nature of his legs.

"Me and Jonothan are going to go kill the guy on watch. And May, too." May grumbled. "Wanna come with us?"

"Eh...yeah, alright. I guess it's better than doing nothing all day. And since that's the way to get outta here too. So, are we all gonna team up on 'im?" Josh's apparent excitement seemed to outweigh his doubts on the matter.

"You know..." May said quietly, preoccupied with her own dilemma, "Those people out there today looked kind of mean..."

Georgia frowned. "You saw that too? I thought they kinda looked weird when I was with the other kids today too."

Jonothan nodded. "Yeah, I noticed that as well. Who even were all those people? Didn't anyone even see how they looked?"

"Hey!" Josh said from below them all. "Quit talking about all that stuff and let's talk about how we're gonna kill this guy!"

A series of thumps and scratches coming from above their heads made them stop, much to Josh's irritation, who had no time to dawdle about every trivial topic that came about.

"Hey, everyone!" A thin, rope-like object dropped from the ceiling, and on the end of it, the only surviving part of Futime Foxy's costume. Sarah's was suspended from the ceiling, though the rest of her body was cloaked in darkness, making it look as though her head were protruding from nothing. She had seemingly recovered from the shame she'd worn previously and had returned to her jubilant disposition, as evidenced by her chipper greeting and unusual location.

A barrage of questions followed her appearance. "Sarah? How did you even...get up there?" Georgia took a step back, both in surprise, and to fully take in the sight.

May looked on, wide eyed. "How are you doing that?"

"It's just like climbing up the jungle gym in the playground! There's lots of stuff to hang on up here, it's pretty easy!" She crawled closer to the group, several pieces of reflective endoskeleton dipping in and out of sight as she did.

"So you can't walk," Georgia said slowly, "But you can climb on walls. How does that make sense?"

Josh groaned emphatically, raising his eyes to the skies. "Can we just do this now?"

"We might as well do this quickly," Jonothan agreed. Josh was already walking down through the Main Hall.

"What are we doing?" Sarah asked, though she was already following Josh and now Jonothan.

"We decided we're gonna team up and kill the night guy," Georgia explained.

Sarah stopped. "Again? But, didn't your brother not want us to do that?"

Georgia shrugged. "Said he changed his mind," she said simply, skipping over the most of Jonothan's reasoning for his sudden change in opinion.

"Oh. Well, if he doesn't mind it, guess there's nothing wrong with it." Her extended neck retreated to the ceiling again, and only a few loose pieces of her mangled body could be made out, moving to follow Jonothan and Josh.

Georgia lingered behind, making sure May followed through and came with them. May looked at her, practically pouting at being herded by her. Nevertheless, she got the message, and hurried to catch up with the others alongside Georgia.

They others had already begun the assault; it didn't look like they were following a specific plan of any sort. Jonothan was in plain sight of the guard, using his size as an intimidation method. He walked slowly, deliberately, towards him. The night guards constant flashes of light didn't phase him like it had Georgia, Sarah and Samantha when they'd received them. He stopped only for a second at a time before continuing again.

Georgia could just about make out Sarah as a pale, white hand disappeared behind the doorway of one of the Party Rooms. Josh was nowhere to be seen, and Georgia assumed he was also in taking cover in one of the Party Rooms to escape the glare of the formidable light.

"Alright," Georgia whispered to May, in a soft, yet somehow commanding voice, "Here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna go through the vent in one of those rooms, over that side," she gestured to the set of Party Rooms on the right side of the hallway, "And you're gonna go through the one on the other side. Just look out for a big, square hole, kind of. Alright, let's go."

"But-" Georgia had already plucked her beak off, and stepped round the corner. She bypassed Jonothan quickly, but took refuge from the light in a Party Room; the effect it had on her was more severe than the one it had on Jonothan.

May looked on, into the hallway. It was like a battlefield; her friends against the night guard, who was likely someone none of them even knew. She hadn't much a choice in the matter, whatever opinion she had on it. Georgia could be very persuasive when she wanted to be.

All she had to do was walk down the hallway and find the vent Georgia told her about. It was simple-on paper. The first problem arose as soon as she took her first step through the doorway: the blinding light. That was the only thing the night guard possessed that held any power over May and the others, and he was certainly making the most out of it. It was absurd to her that such a small, common-place object could inflict such pain on her. It felt like her very mind was under attack.

The sensation lasted a few moments before declining. After coming back to her senses, she wasted no time in rushing into the Party Room further down, with the threat of another blast of light pushing her forward. She practically dived into the room, out of the way as the second beam of light flooded the hallway. She'd made it to the room. Now all she needed to do was find the vent.

On the opposite side of the hallway, withing the confines of another vent, Josh was already quickly approaching his target. After entering Party Room 1, and abandoning his sign and plastic balloon, it was only a matter of seconds until he spotted the vent near the floor. It was just his size, and it was right at the bottom of the wall, making it an easy feat to crawl into. Its alluring nature overpowered common sense, which would dictate that crawling right into the unknown was a bad idea. There had to be a chance that the vent would lead him to the guard's office, after all, bypassing the flash light's ray entirely. If he could get there, he'd be able to...

Josh's gradually slowed to a halt as the thought stayed in his mind. What would he be able to do? He wasn't big like the others. He hadn't got any fingers, and he could barely even move his stubby arms. Maybe he hadn't thought this all the way through. He cursed his bad luck with the body he'd received, but pushed forward. He'd figure out what he'd do when he got a chance to do it.

His head poked through the opening of the vent, eyeballing the guard. He weighed his options, what few he had, but the urge to simply jump out to him persisted. Then he spotted it; lying on the edge of the desk, was the flashlight, the only thing standing between him and his friends.

He sprang out onto the floor, and immediately grabbed the flashlight without a second thought.

"What the fuck?!" The guard exclaimed, reaching out and grabbing nothing as Josh whisked his defense from the desk.

Josh stepped backwards, holding the flashlight close to his chest, narrowing his eyes at the night guard gloatingly. The pure look of bewilderment in his eyes made Josh utter a mean-spirited laugh at his expense.

The guard raised himself from his chair, and slowly advanced towards him. Josh backed away in correspondence, laughing all the while.

Before he could get any further, May popped out from the vent opposite to the two. The guard noticed immediately, though it took a second for May to right herself and stand up.

"Fuck." The guard flung out his arm and grabbed a furry, brown mask, resembling the head of Freddy Fazbear. He shoved it over his own, concealing his identity.

May got to her feet, poised to attack the night guard, and yet, there was no one but Josh and her in the office. "Wh-where'd go?"

Josh was just as confused as she was. "I dunno. He was just there a second ago. Then he got some mask or something and stuck it on his head." He eyed the place where the man had stood just seconds before. It was like there was a gap in his vision, a wall that he couldn't see past.

May scanned the room again. "Okay...I-I'll go get Georgia and Sarah to help look for him." She left nervously, checking her back and wringing her hands as she exited the office. Josh stayed put, still suspicious of the guard's sudden disappearance. His stare intensified at the spot where his vision, and the room itself, seemed distorted. Seconds later, to his surprise, the guard reappeared, pulling off the brown mask. He lunged for the flashlight again, and succeeded it grabbing a hold of it while Josh was taken off guard. It was easy to pry it from his hands considering his lack of fingers to grip the object with, and let out a victorious "A-ha!"

He accomplished the task much too light. By then, the formidable form of Jonothan had entered the room. Both Josh ad the guard were startled by his sudden appearance. His eyes were a hollow black, with the light of the office's lightbulb reflecting against them.

The guard flicked the light on, but by that time, his neck was already in Jonothan's clenched fist, and his feet no longer touched the floor. Jonothan batted the flashlight out of his hand with a lazy flick of his own. He raised his other hand, keeping his eyes on the wide-eyed face of the guard, who was gasping and choking for air, and tightened it into a fist. Jonothan slammed his heavy fist into the guard's face, once, twice, and a third time. The guard's once kicking legs were still, and his head flopped to the side, blood gently pouring over Jonothan's hand.

Colour filled his empty eyes, as he looked at the body of the man he was holding. "Woah."

"Dude." Josh said in awe. "That was *awesome!*"

"Yeah. I just...wow." He examined the red liquid dripping through his fingers and let the body drop to the floor. "I...didn't really expect to...kill him."

"What? You punched that guy in the face so hard his teeth fell out! Look!" Josh gestured to a bloody tooth lying near his feet.

A proud grin almost formed on his face. "That actually felt kind of good. Kind of like a stress reliever." He wiggled his thick fingers again, as if experiencing the sensation of having a body for the first time.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Josh said enthusiastically. "We've gotta tell the girls about this!"

* * *

 **(A/N: Hey, everyone, sorry for the delay between chapters. Chapters will start coming quicker now. Thanks for reading!)**


	31. Chapter 30: Golden Freddy

p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.357143em; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"The ghastly sound of nothingness filled the Parts Service room. Despite its four inhabitants, the room felt undeniably desolate. The walls appeared to captivate them all, as all eyes were locked straight ahead on one, unblinking and unfaltering. To say tension was high in the room would be an understatement. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Jack informed the others that the night guard had already been killed by the newcomers, having activated and left the room before any of them. Now, without the prospect of being able to unleash some pent up rage on a living human, they simply sat, and stared. None of them had spoken in what must have been hours. They remained still, lifeless as statues, with the exception of the occasional flick of an eye, or the twitch of an ear./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"At one point, Lilly had lifted her head to speak to the others, carrying a semblance of optimism which she knew to be fake. "We could go and talk to the other kids. They might be fun to talk to."/p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"She received only a rejecting grunt from Jack. Then the dreariness continued without another word for another hour. There were no lighthearted chats about whatever topic came to their minds, no immature squabbles about which flavour of ice-cream was better. The mood of their friend circle had changed. They'd known that for a long time now. But now that they were alone, without an objective to pursue to shield them from the fact, they were coming to terms with it. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""I hate this," Samantha said suddenly. She still hadn't moved yet, but life was beginning to spread throughout her robotic body. First, the golden eyes darted around again, then the ears twitched, her jaw snapped shut, her head turned. Soon enough, she was on her feet again. "I hate being stuck here like this, doing nothing. There's got to be em style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px;"some way/em to get out of here. Maybe they forgot to lock the front door. Maybe we can get out that way." /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"She darted to the other side of the room, carelessly kicking Christopher as she did. The force of contact brought him from the trance-like state that had encapsulated them. "Forget about it, Sam. The only way out of here is to kill em style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px;"him/em. Even if we do get out, looking like this, they'll just throw us back in again. There's no point." /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Samantha froze, as if life she'd regained seconds ago had been drained from her body suddenly. He head turned slowly to face Christopher, sitting up against the wall next to her. Her eyes starred into his own, with surprising concentration that he wouldn't have expected from her. She was looking right into him, searching through him for something. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""You know," she finally said, carefully, "It's em style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px;"your/em fault we got killed in the first place." /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Wha-? My-my fault?! How is it my fault?!" Christopher tensed up. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Yeah. em style="font-weight: inherit; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"You/em were the one who wanted to go see Fredbear. Remember? You were the one that said we should follow Spring Bonnie. em style="font-weight: inherit; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"I/em just wanted to watch Foxy. But nooo, we had to help Fredbear get better."/p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Cut it out, Sam," Lilly warned from across the room, albeit in a disinterested voice./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Samantha ignored her, choosing instead to continue her spontaneous rant. "If it wasn't for you, we would still be alive. We wouldn't be stuck here, in this stupid place, looking like these stupid robots!"/p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Christopher did not like the mad, dangerous glint in her eye nor her hook, as she steadily raised it. "Sam, I didn't do this! We all wanted to go! You were the only one who didn't!" He too got to his feet, taking a defencive stance in case the situation went awry. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Samantha shook her head decisively. "No. It was you. You told everyone else we should do it. It's your fault." /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Sam-" Lilly began. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Samantha shook her head again, dismissing her. She was no focused on Christopher completely, wearing a threatening scowl on her face. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""No, I didn't, Sam. We all agreed to go. Stop blaming me," Christopher retorted in spite of himself. Fighting against her would only rile Samantha up more./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""No!" Samantha brought her head to his face in one swift movement. "It was you!" /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"That was the remark that cracked him. He batted the sharpened tip of the hook away from his face, catching its owner by surprise, and giving him a clear path to her face. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"His fist made contact with it as soon as she looked away from her hooked hand, and Christopher could see the fury become surprise. Her head fell to the side, and she stumbled around momentarily. Christopher's retaliation didn't cease, and he took advantage of her disarray and shoved her, using his heavier body against her. She toppled over easily, landing on her back. She feebly feebly tried to pick herself back up, growling as she did in an attempt to intimidate Christopher, who kicked her down to the floor again. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""em style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px;"This is not my fault./em" He stood above her, victorious, staring down onto her with gleaming white pupils as she had done to him. It felt good, to have beaten her for once. It felt great. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Wow," Jack said, startling him. At some point during the short battle, Jack and Lilly had come to spectate. Christopher was surprise Lilly hadn't tried to break it up. "You actually beat Sam up."/p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Lilly nodded vacantly, but didn't comment. She simply stared down at Samantha, defeated on the ground, with something resembling pity. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""I'm going to kill you..." Samantha pushed herself up again. She wasn't going to just be knocked down by Christopher, of all people, and accept a loss. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""em style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px;"Stop,/em" a voice said before Christopher could deliver another kick to Samantha, to his dismay./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"The voice was familiar, but unrecognisable. The owner of the voice, as well as the new presence in the room, was not hard to locate. It drew their attention to it like a whirlpool, as they all focused on the dirtied, golden bear suit, hidden in shadows just behind them. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Michael," Lilly said softly, calmer than she should have been after losing her brother for three days, only for him to reappear without any prior indication of his return. "You're back." Michael didn't respond./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Where have you been?" Christopher demanded, filled with a newfound aplomb following his victory over Samantha. Again, Michael was silent. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"He was different, somehow, Lilly noticed. There was something about him that gave off a strong sense of sinisterness. The grin etched into his face was grim and twisted. He was silently laughing at something none of them could see, with a knowing smile to show them. He looked like a corpse, slumped over and bloodied, his head and jaw hanging limp, chuckling all the while. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Then he spoke again. His voice was as distant as faint as before, but it sounded like he was struggling to get the words out, his voice wavered as he spoke. "em style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px;"He used me./em"/p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""He...what? Who?" Lilly asked, stepping closer to Michael. Something was warning her against going further, a voice in the back of her mind. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""em style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px;"Him./em He wore me. He used me...as a disguise." His voice was monotone, and sounded almost inhuman. The words were devoid of emotion, as if the robot Michael possessed was speaking itself./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"""Him"? You mean, our killer?" Christopher inquired. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Yes." White pupils flickered on in Michael's void-like eyes before returning to darkness again. "He used me to...kill...those children..."/p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Wait," Jack said, "He wore you like a costume? He was em style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px;"inside/em you? Did you see him?" /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""No," Michael replied. "It was too dark. I couldn't see his face."/p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Michael..." Lilly said gently. She took a slight step forward, dismissing the voice telling her not to, "Are you alright?" /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Michael's silence gave her the answer she was looking for more than words would./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""I've been watching," he said abruptly, "Hiding around and watching. I can't...talk to those children. They hate me. I em style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px;"killed/em them." /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Lilly shook her head firmly. "No. You didn't kill anyone Michael. You couldn't do anything to stop him, you can't even move."/p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""I can move now," Michael said, "Without moving. Look." Suddenly, he wasn't there anymore. He had dissolved into thin air right before them. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Where'd he go?!" Samantha cried, glancing around the room wildly. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Here." They spun around, and there Michael sat. "I can...teleport around...without moving." /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""How'd you do that?" Jack demanded, thoroughly impressed and shocked by the feat. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""I don't know," he replied simply. "I don't know how. I just can." /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Wow," Samantha cooed. She seemed to have forgotten about her uproar by now. /p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""That doesn't matter," Michael breathed. "I came back here because I'm ready." He paused for a moment, in which there was total silence. Michael seemed to be thinking. "After em style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px;"he/em used me, I was just sad. I didn't want to...talk to anyone. I felt really bad for...killing those children. But I'm not sad now. Not anymore. Now I just feel...angry." The gleaming pupils flickered on in his hollow mask again. "I'm going to kill him. So we can all be free."/p 


	32. Chapter 31: Five Days Until the Party

p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.357143em; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Max sat alone on the couch, fixated on the vivid colours and jubilant animation of the characters of the show he was watching. He held the golden teddy bear close to his chest as he watched, a constant reminder that he wasn't alone, that he was safe./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"He wouldn't have minded being alone while watching TV; it beat being tormented by his older brother Mike, most of the time. But under the circumstances, he might have preferred it./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"He was watching Fredbear Friends, a cartoon featuring the classic Freddy Fazbear's Pizza characters. There was Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy...Fredbear. It was basic, unsurprising material for children to watch mindlessly, and to advertise the Fazbear brand. There was nothing inherently scary or alarming about it, which is why Max's pronounced apprehensiveness towards the show was a mystery to his family. He refused to tell them, even his overbearing father, why it inflicted so much unease on him. And so the matter was dismissed by them, accepted as just another of his quirks, just as they had his fear of the Diner where the real versions of the characters performed. Many times it had become the subject of Mike's teasing, but Max usually didn't mind it. Mike didn't know what he knew./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"His mother would have been able to help him. She would have put Mike in his place. She would have comforted him, knowing that his almost constant state of anxiety nowadays was not uncalled for, considering what he had gone through just months before. But, there was no point in imagining what his mother could have done for him now. Now, the only one he could feel a sense of security around, the only one who gave him company, was the very plush he held in his arms./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"It had started communicating with him after that day, after what he'd witnessed. He was understandably shaken, and his teddy bear talking suddenly didn't help his state. He'd been about to run out of his own bedroom screaming, terrified that the creature had somehow penetrated the safety of his house, when the plush had begun to speak in a soothing voice that quickly erased his concerns. It had told him not to be afraid, that it was only going to help him./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Over time, Max felt he'd developed a strong connection with the bear. He spoke to it, told it his worries, his concerns, his fears, and it spoke back, continuously comforting him. It had become his only real friend after what had happened. And it was this connection that had led Max to where he found himself now./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Earlier that day, on the topic of the life-sized versions of the robotic characters being scarier than the toys he owned, Fredbear had recommended, requested, even, that he watch Fredbear Friends, in hopes that the lifelike, friendly take on the characters would lessen his unease around them. This was the only time Fredbear had asked him to do something other than to tell someone else about what he had seen, which he had refused to do every time. And so, he sat himself down, turned on the TV, and began to watch./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"It had little effect on his nerves. The cheap animation that went into making the cartoon only made the characters seem more surreal, like lifeless marionettes being pulled on strings. Their faces almost always portrayed happiness, grins from cheek-to-cheek. There was just something so unsettling about them, especially Fredbear, with his disproportionate body and limbs, his huge, square teeth, his round, staring eyes. It was a wonder that any kid wouldn't be afraid of the characters after watching the show, Max thought./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Despite the almost grotesque versions of the characters on the screen, he felt almost hypnotised by the television, which served as a perfect distraction for Mike, as he snatched the golden teddy bear from Max's hands./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Hey!" Max said immediately, jumping and grabbing at something that wasn't there. Mike had already fled from the living room with Fredbear, snickering madly as he did. Max hopped up from the couch, and pursued his brother. He found him, to his surprise, standing in the middle of the hallway, in front of the door to his room, in plain sight. He held Fredbear up in one hand, proudly displaying his stealthy work./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Mike, come on, give him back!" Max kept his distance, just in case Mike tried something./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Mike withheld a laugh, though it was still visible on his crooked smile. "Alright, there you go." He carelessly tossed the teddy bear into Max's room, and it landed softly on his tidy bed./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Max gave Mike a momentary glance of confusion, before rushing into the bedroom before he could do anything more. Just as soon as he was inside, the door slammed behind him. He turned, instantly knowing Mike's intentions. How could he have fallen for it again?!/p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"He grabbed the doorknob, pulling with all his might, though Mike's strength was vastly superior, as he held the door shut with a single arm, and fitted a key into its hole, twisting it, and sealing his brother inside./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""No! Mike, let me out, please! It's not funny! Please!" Max pounded on the door, hearing only Mike's sly laughter in response./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Sorry, Max, Dad has the only key! Looks like you're stuck in there 'til he comes home! You can wait that long, can't you?"/p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Mike! Please just open the door! Please!" He begged./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Dismissive laughter and the sound of footsteps heading away from the door indicated Mike's departure, and his only hope of escaping the room before his father returned from work. He wasn't going to be happy with either of them when he did./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Max battered the door with his fists again. "Mike! Come back! Let me out!" Not even a fit of laughter came in reply. "Mike! Annie! Just let me out!" His beating fists became weaker and weaker, until at last, they slowed to a stop, and Max was forced to resign himself to being trapped inside his bedroom for long hours until his father returned home./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""What did he do this time?"/p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"Max spun around. He'd almost forgotten Mike had thrown Fredbear into the bedroom with him. He was thankful that he hadn't been abandoned completely./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""He locked you in your room again..." Max nodded, tears beginning to well up in his eyes, which he struggled to hold back. He sat on his bed, next to Fredbear, sniffling./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Don't be afraid. I am here with you." Max nodded again in understanding and sighed. His eyes travelled over to the corner, of the room, where four plushies sat in a ring. Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, who'd suffered a slight injury after losing his head to Mike. Other than his own sister, they were his only friends left now after what had happened./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;"He scolded himself, trying not to think about it. Trying not to think about them. But it was of no use. He broke down into tears and curled up into a ball on his bed, shutting his eyes tightly. Fredbear uttered another sentence of comfort before there was silence again./p  
p style="margin: 0.357143em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857em; color: #3d5460; background-color: #dbdbdb;""Tomorrow is another day."/p 


End file.
